Debate contribution: Road Maintenance

Debate contribution by Mr Peter Martin on 16 February 2026.

MLA

Mr Peter Martin

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

16 February 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Road Maintenance

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5391951

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. I will speak to the motion and summarise the debate as best I can. We have all had front seats to the growing crisis in the Department for Infrastructure over our road network. The Department should be a cornerstone for economic growth and connectivity in Northern Ireland but is instead hamstrung by a level of administrative inertia and a lack of strategic clarity when it comes to tackling potholes and the state of our roads. The only winners in that battle are the tyre repair centres and those fitting new front suspensions. From Bangor to Ballymena and from Fivemiletown to Fintona, families, commuters, farmers, delivery drivers and owners of small businesses are all paying the price. Tyres are being shredded and suspension systems damaged. I am happy to mention the Member for West Belfast, who cited the fact that motorcyclists and cyclists — he may have been the first in the debate to do so — are at particular risk from potholes. If we hit a pothole in our car, the car can get quite seriously damaged, but if a motorcyclist hits one at 40 mph or a cyclist hits one at 30 mph, they can get seriously injured, so I am grateful to the Member for highlighting that point. I was going to do so myself.

I thank the Member for West Belfast for his intervention. My understanding is that the legislative priority for active travel is 10% of the overall budget. The Minister probably knows the answer, and the Member beside her is nodding at me, so that is money that should be spent on active travel. My understanding is that it is being spent in a range of ways, and that is correct, because active travel also means that the elderly can use footpaths, and some of our footpaths are badly damaged. We are, however, focusing on roads today.

The Minister cannot continue to cite chronic underfunding. She often blames the British Treasury for a lack of funding; my understanding from Sam McBride is that she has used that excuse 132 times in response to questions for written answer. The fact remains that the 2025-26 DFI budget is the largest that DFI has ever had; in fact, according to the think tank Pivotal, the DFI budget has risen by over 60% in the past eight years and the only Department budget that has risen more is that of the Department of Health.

I will to the Minister.

I thank the Minister for her intervention. She will not take me into the issue of waste water, but I will say that, as Chair of the Infrastructure Committee, I do not have the responsibility or imperative to solve it. That is an imperative for the Minister to solve, because she is the Minister. I will give her this: there are challenges in DFI that require capital funding, but that is her responsibility. She is the Infrastructure Minister. In one of your most recent press releases, Minister, which was cited here today, you mentioned the additional damage that freezing temperatures had caused over the winter. When I looked at the seasonal weather over that period, I saw that last December had been the warmest that Northern Ireland had had in the past 29 years. It is generally accepted that we have had the mildest winter for a considerable time. That goes to the heart of the issue, which is the effectiveness and efficiency of the Department. It is worth pausing for a second — I think that I just about have time — to mention that. "Effectiveness" and "efficiency" are two words that I hear a lot in the Assembly: they mean different things. Efficiency is doing things right, and effectiveness is doing the right things. When we apply those words to the situation that we are looking at, we see that efficiency is repairing our roads, with their potholes, in an effective and efficient manner that will last for some time, while effectiveness is doing the right things, which means picking the important things and following through with capital investment. That is an issue for the Minister, because she gets to make those strategic decisions. We have questions around how long a temporary fix might last and when a permanent repair will go in after a temporary fix. The Minister touched on that, but I did not follow exactly what she said; I am sure that the Committee will write to her in that regard. What is the inspection regime for contractors who go in to do fixes, and how does the Department quality-assure them? I am aware that that happens with some contractors who put in cabling along our footpaths, and the Committee will pick up on that. It is worth hearing from the public in the debate today. I looked at a piece that the BBC recently ran, and I will read out two views that members of the public expressed. Wilson Beggs said that calling a road where he lives "a road" is simply "stretching the imagination" but:

"nobody seems interested in doing anything about this".

John Smyth, another member of the public, said that he had lost two tyres after hitting a pothole and that, one week after replacing them, he hit another pothole. He said:

"I would not feel safe on the roads at this moment in time, it's very frustrating."

Those are real statements that, I believe, represent the views of people across Northern Ireland who may be listening to the debate. In contrast to some Members who spoke, I completely reject the idea that this is a party political point-scoring exercise. If the potholes were situated just in unionist areas or just in nationalist areas, I might have some sympathy with the argument presented on the other side of the House, but every Member knows that that is not the case: the potholes are everywhere. It is the Assembly's job to hold the person responsible — the Minister — to account, and that is what we are doing today. The potholes affect everyone regardless of political opinion, and it is our job to hold the Minister to account on the issue. Through the motion, my party will continue to do that. I will give myself three minutes to sum up some of the arguments and give everyone their dues. My colleague Stephen Dunne said that constituents deserve better than failure on potholes and cited the repeated failure of the Minister. Cathal Boylan said that supporting his amendment would demonstrate that Members will not play party politics. Andrew McMurray had, perhaps, the quote of the day when he said — I will not get this right, Andrew — that Alliance is often accused of being a "middle-of-the-road party". He said that it would be a brave man or woman who would even go onto our roads today. John Stewart said that there is a critical failure of road assets, that these are not cosmetic concerns and that millions of pounds are being paid out by the Department in insurance costs. Justin McNulty said that potholes are a daily hazard in Newry and Armagh and that constituents are fed up and furious. My colleague Harry Harvey said that the Minister cannot plead poverty any longer and that the public want fixes, not excuses. Diana Armstrong said that this affects rural constituencies especially — I tend to agree with her: I was in Markethill at the weekend, and some of the roads around there are, frankly, appalling — and highlighted some roads in her constituency that are worthy of note. Mark Durkan said that repairs fail and the public end up paying the price, sometimes financially and certainly through the inconvenience caused to them. Timothy Gaston said that leaving maintenance to the end of the allocation cycle is ridiculous and that pots of money will not solve the problem in the long term. Gerry Carroll talked about the number of potholes in his constituency and highlighted the fact that funeral cortèges have not been able to make it to Roselawn because of the damage that is being caused to them by potholes. The Minister strongly agreed with, I imagine, all the concerns that she heard today. She said that the road network is crucial and that there is currently concentration on the most urgent repairs but she would like to get out of that cycle. That will do for summing up. I brought my remarks in just on time. I urge everyone to support our motion.

1,428 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:56 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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