Debate contribution: Roads: A1 Junctions Phase 2

Debate contribution by Mr John O'Dowd on 24 March 2026.

MLA

Mr John O'Dowd

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

24 March 2026

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Roads: A1 Junctions Phase 2

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5463917

Read the official Assembly record

Text

For the record, I am speaking as an MLA for Upper Bann. I thank Eóin for bringing forward the Adjournment debate this evening. I also pay tribute to the many A1 campaigners, including Monica and Ciara, who have kept the issue on the agenda, despite their heartbreak. I am sure that it has been very difficult for them to continue to drive that agenda, but they have done so with great courage and dignity. Any time that I have met them, I have always been impressed by their dignity and commitment, and with the forthright way in which they presented their case. I commend them for that. I am very familiar with the project. As has been pointed out, in July 2024, when I was Infrastructure Minister, there was hope that we could move quite quickly on it. However, no one could have foretold what was to happen next: how a judgement in another case would impact on a wide range of infrastructure projects in which the current Infrastructure Minister is involved. I understand the call to treat the A1 differently from other projects, but, as the old adage goes, act in haste and regret at your leisure. The step that the Minister has taken — to extend the restricted list — is the correct way forward. The last thing that we want to happen is for the Minister to take a different action, only for a ruling in a court elsewhere to have an impact on that decision and knock us back a couple of steps in respect of the A1 junction. We do not want to go back to a public inquiry, environmental impact assessments or any of those things, because they take time and considerable amounts of money, and you are not always sure about where they will end up. We have certainty about a number of elements of the A1 project. We have been through the public inquiry and a number of other elements. We know where it is. The Minister has extended the restricted list, which can be picked up almost immediately, moving forward. I can understand that the campaigners, the people who are listening to the debate or those who may read about it are not interested in what I call Civil Service terminology, or government terminology, but these are important steps, and they are important reasons why the Minister has taken the decisions that she has taken, thus far. We are nearer to the completion of the journey. I hope that the court case on the A5 goes the way that it should and that that project moves forward and opens the way for the A1 project. There needs to be greater legal protection for Executive projects. We have to start considering how we as an Assembly and Executive consider how we protect Executive projects that are being brought forward for the common good of the people.

I am not talking about that issue, specifically. Major projects are susceptible to judicial review, because they are such complex, multilayered projects that require significant amounts of work and research and data. Within all that research, data, policies etc, someone can find a flaw. When that flaw is exposed, the project is set back. Executive projects, which are being carried out for the betterment of the people whom we are elected to serve, deserve and require greater legal protection than they currently have. That is particularly the case in road infrastructure projects. Look at the A1 project. It is about road safety and ensuring that people can travel the road more safely than they do at present. Eóin referred to the 40 deaths over the past number of years. Each one of those deaths was a tragedy. The A1 is the major economic highway from Belfast to Dublin, and it is vital to our economy. The need for those sorts of projects to move ahead quickly cannot be overemphasised. Delay causes heartache and more financial consequences, neither of which can be measured against the other, but both need to be taken into account, and we need to be able to deliver our infrastructure projects much more quickly than we currently can. The Executive, rightly, come under scrutiny in these matters, but this is not exclusive to the Executive. If you look at what is happening down South, in England or elsewhere, you will see that Governments are facing up to the challenge of protecting their major infrastructure projects. We have to start moving in that direction.

750 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:16 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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