John O'Dowd
Upper Bann · Sinn Féin · Northern Ireland
“As I set out in response to the previous question, we have in place the vacant property rate relief scheme and the small business rate relief scheme, which are very successful. I set aside £10 million in the draft Budget for small business rate relief to be invested.”
“I am particularly keen to hear from those impacted by vacant commercial units and especially about how any phased increase can be implemented in a sustainable way that is fair, proportionate and sustainable within the tax system.”
“I outlined my intent to take that approach in my statement on 18 November, alongside the fact that reform of rating policy should support growth, make better use of property and ensure that the system is fair, proportionate and aligned with wider economic objectives.”
“The accelerator will operate alongside our highly successful Back in Business scheme, which has helped to bring over 100 vacant high street properties back into use since May 2024. Those issues have been the subject of considerable interest and comment in the Assembly, and it is right that we grasp the nettle now.”
“There are no circumstances in which a hard border would be good for the people of Ireland; it would not be good for anyone. Those who suggest that are being naive at best and dangerous at worst, in the sense of not understanding this society. <BR /> <BR />Rural communities along the border are one and the same.”
“This announcement represents the next step in that. That said, I also put on record my intention to strengthen support for small businesses. In that vein, £10 million has been set aside in the draft Budget to broaden the impact of the small business rate relief scheme in order to increase the number of businesses that can benefit from it.…”
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“I do not have a list of the junctions in front of me, but the A1 junctions phase 2 scheme aims to provide further safety improvements along the A1 dual carriageway between Hillsborough and Loughbrickland. I am more than happy to provide the Member with the detail that she requires.”
“If the Member wishes to write to me about her constituent's experience, I will be more than happy to receive that correspondence and take a look at it. That would be important. <BR /> <BR />As the Member says, I announced this morning that the second stage invitation for tenders will take place in spring 2025, following the pre-qualification assessment, which will determine a restrictive list of contractors. The construction for the scheme is due to commence in March 2026 and will take three years to complete.”
“There is no legal impediment to the Department continuing the works on the A5. That is the process that we will now commence. The cost of delays to the A5 going beyond next spring will run to tens of millions of pounds, not to mention the road safety implications of continuing delays. My Department will proceed within its legal framework.”
“Planned works will proceed. There is no legal injunction to prevent us moving ahead with planned works, and, given the cost of delay to that project, it is only right and prudent that we move ahead as planned.”
“I assure the Member that I am acutely aware of the importance of the application and the upcoming major event that is being planned. However, all planning applications have to be given a fair and equal hearing, and that is exactly what is happening with that application.”
“The matter has, understandably, been raised with me on several occasions. My officials are working their way through the application, and, when they are in a position to make a recommendation to me, they will do so.”
“The Member will be aware that we are now engaged in legal proceedings with the company that was providing the equipment to Mallusk and Hydebank. I hope that those legal proceedings will be resolved as soon as possible, and we will then have a greater indication of the capacity in the system. The Member is right: it would be much better if Hydebank and Mallusk were up and running. That would take some of the pressure off other parts of the system, but, thus far, the measures that have been taken are absorbing the pressure.”
“I expect that, by early spring of next year, the measures that I have taken on exemptions will have had their full impact and we will therefore see a significant reduction in the delays in people receiving their MOT dates. There are still delays in some areas. My mailbox on the issue has significantly reduced over the past number of months, which may indicate an improvement in service. I encourage anyone who is seeking a date to continue to check the Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA) website, however, because cancellations will become available. If people are at the point at which renewing their tax and other matters are on a collision course with an MOT date, there is information on the nidirect website. DVA officials will work with people as best as they can to get them a date and time.”
“Yes, it will be an important document. The consultation process that we will enter into will map out our road and transport network for the next 20-odd years, maybe more. It is vital. I understand Members' anticipation as they wait for it, so I will do my best to bring it forward as soon as possible.”
“I hope to come before the House to do that in the early part of the next calendar year. As the Member heard me say earlier, a number of plans are afoot. Plans are going through development in a number of areas across the North. I hope to be in a position to come forward with a plan in the early part of next year.”
“Their lives are busier and more exciting than ours, and they have a lot of things going on in their head, so give them space and time in order to ensure that they arrive home safely.”
“Yes. I have said in the Chamber many times that 95% of road traffic collisions are a result of human error by a driver, a pedestrian, a cyclist or whomever the road user is. Human error leads to 95% of road traffic collisions. I appeal to anyone who comes across a stationary school bus, whether it is on a rural or urban road, to give space to the bus and to the passengers who are getting off it, particularly on these dark nights. <BR /> <BR />I occasionally get the opportunity to give my sons a lift from the school bus stop. I see the way in which young people come off that bus. You have to have your wits about you. When people approach stationary school buses, they should always be aware that young people are about.”
“There have been no further policy developments, but we will look at the issue as we work our way through road safety improvements. Drivers should be aware that, under the Highway Code, I believe, they should not pass a stationary school bus. If we need to strengthen the legislation on it, however, we should look at that.”
“There is a long-standing policy on the roads that the Department does and can grit within the time frame and the finances that it has available. I am more than happy to share the criteria with the Member. If she believes that the road in question meets those criteria, she should raise that when she discusses the crash barrier issue with officials.”
“My officials are more than happy to engage with the Member on that and discuss the road safety implications in the area and how best to deal with them.”
“<BR /> <BR />I could stand here and say, "Yes, I will bring in an expert-led group to carry out a review that will last six months and cost x amount of money", and be pretty confident that, at the end of it, it would come back to me with the same conclusions as every other review of NI Water that has been conducted. Members need to get off the fence in that sense. You either support NI Water's remaining a publicly owned company funded through direct taxation, or you support its being privatised. That is the fence on which some people are sitting. People are perfectly entitled to get off that fence on whichever side they want, but get off the fence and defend your position. I am defending my position: I will not privatise NI Water, and I will not introduce domestic water charges.”
“The actual term used in the Audit Office report is "encourage". There is no formal recommendation in the Audit Office report; it encourages NI Water and me to proceed with a review. If a Member or anyone comes forward to me with fresh information that would lead to an expert-led panel dealing with new information on how to structure a water company, I am more than willing to do that, but, to date, no one has come forward to me with that and nor am I aware of information that would lead to the benefit of an expert-led group being brought in.”
“I am confident that, with the Executive working together and seeking solutions to problems, rather than simply highlighting them, we can be successful in fulfilling our ambition and plan to deliver that number of homes over the next number of years. <BR /> <BR />NI Water, like all public services, faces significant challenges. It is no different from any other public service. I am confident that Executive colleagues understand the need. If we are to progress our ambitious plans across a range of areas, the Department for Infrastructure needs to be properly funded. If we do not have the drains underground, we cannot put the cranes overground. I am bringing forward proposals in that regard.”
“I advise Members to watch it. It would be worth the while of those who advocate the privatisation or mutualisation of NI Water to watch it and see the consequences for the environment, shareholders — well, it is good for the shareholders, it has to be said — and bill payers.”
“Let us see what we have done in recent months. I provided NI Water with over £500 million of funding, which is 40% of the non-ring-fenced budget of my Department. In recent weeks, during the October monitoring round, I secured an extra £32 million for NI Water. I secured agreement from the Executive about a sustainable drainage Bill, which will be introduced in the Assembly in due course. I am working my way through what legislative changes or new legislation I will require to introduce developer charges in relation to NI Water. Those are three practical steps that I have taken in the last period. <BR /> <BR />I do not know whether Members had the opportunity last night to watch 'Panorama'. It was a very interesting programme about private water infrastructure and businesses in England.”
“I am progressing a three-pronged approach in partnership with the Executive by seeking further investment from Executive colleagues; reviewing the policy and legislation on developer contributions; and seeking to secure Executive agreement for the water, flooding and sustainable drainage Bill, which is to be introduced to the Assembly.”
“<BR /> <BR />If the suggestion is that another funding model should be introduced, the Assembly should be aware that the other models that have been proposed to date would involve domestic water charges and additional borrowing debt finance. That includes mutualisation, on which I made my position clear in the debate on the private Members' motion on the matter in April. To be clear, I will not introduce domestic water charges and I will not oversee additional borrowing that will lead to an unmanageable scale of debt that is similar to what is being experienced in some water companies in England.”
“<BR /> <BR />Regardless of whether the existing funding model is sustainable and fit for purpose, there is a need for additional funding for all public services. NI Water is not immune to that. Water and sewerage infrastructure has suffered from years of historical underinvestment as a result of the austerity policies of successive British Governments. We are dealing with the legacy of that. I continue to make the case with my Executive colleagues for additional funding for NI Water. Indeed, I was able to provide NI Water with an additional £32 million of public money in the October monitoring round, £19·5 million of which was to specifically address waste water capacity issues in order to enable housing connections.”
“That work reviewed opportunities for raising additional revenue; operating more efficiently; using financial transactions capital and additional borrowing; and seeking an increase in public expenditure funding. My Department also reviewed alternative water utility company structures across Britain and Ireland in order to identify best practice. However, the privatisation and mutualisation models that are favoured in England and Wales require domestic water customers to pay charges. Further recent evidence has demonstrated that those governance models do not necessarily provide the better levels of services that people expect and can lead to higher levels of debt and increasing costs.”
“With your permission, Mr Deputy Speaker, I will answer questions 9 and 10 together, and, if appropriate, I ask for some extra time to do so. <BR /> <BR />I noted the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on the funding of water infrastructure, which was published earlier this year. My Department carried out considerable work on the funding and governance options for NI Water. In 2019-2020, the Department formed a working group with experts from NI Water, the Utility Regulator, the Department of Finance, the Strategic Investment Board and the Department for Infrastructure's finance branch to undertake research into and analysis of the situation.”
“I am happy to raise that issue with my officials.”
“My Department's role in coastal defences is the protection of my Department's property. That may include roads and other areas. That is my Department's role in coastal flood defences. There has been some engagement with Minister Muir — there is no doubt that that engagement will continue — and others in the Executive about how we ensure that we have proper coastal defences in place as tides and storms increase.”
“<BR /> <BR />At this point, I put on record my appreciation to all the staff who worked over the weekend and put in long hours, from all the agencies that responded to the most recent flood. A lot of the work that they carried out prior to the storm hitting saved a lot of communities from damage and flooding, though it was not a particularly heavy rain event: it was more of a wind event. However, the work that goes on behind the scenes is often unseen and unappreciated. However, I assure Members that significant work was carried out by a multitude of agencies in the run-up to the most recent storm.”
“In the lead up to the recent storm, storm Bert, there was, for a period, notification of that storm approaching. My officials managed to visit a number of sites about which they had concerns to check, in particular, drainage and the covers on drains, and whether drains were blocked by any materials. That was the case in the King' Row area, which my officials visited on the Friday and again on the Saturday to ensure that there was no recurrence of previous flooding. They checked as best they could because there are a number of factors involved in the flooding in Kings Row. I have also asked my officials to carry out a review of the flooding there and at Dundonald and in a few other places that were impacted on by flooding in the previous storm to see whether there are any lessons that we can learn from that.”
“It is the ambition of my Department to introduce such a measure. However, such things incur significant costs. I keep the matter under review through budgetary periods to see whether I can set aside the funding even to start such alerts and reach a point where we have an up-to-date flood identification programme.”
“My Department has published flood maps for all areas across the region. Those maps identify areas that may be vulnerable to flooding. A regional flood risk management plan (FRMP) for 2021-27 has also been developed by my Department. This FRMP, which is readily available on my Department’s website, includes a range of interventions to manage flood risk from a range of sources. As part of that work, my Department is planning to commission detailed flood studies for Newtownabbey and Carrickfergus, to assess any river and coastal flood risks within those locations and to identify whether there are any economically viable schemes to reduce the impact of flooding in the area.”
“We will examine how we can secure the road. The Member, and other Members, may have seen the video footage taken of the most recent damage to the road. It is significant. The topography of the area makes it very difficult to remedy, and, due to the intensity of some of the rainstorms that we have had recently, material has simply washed out from underneath the road. We will examine it to see how we can secure the road in the long term.”
“In order to address the safety issues on the Glenshesk Road, I have allocated £275,000 to manage the damage associated with the slippage on 27 March 2024. That funding will facilitate surveys and enabling works and will allow for the completion of the detailed design throughout this financial year. Further funding will then be sought from next year’s structural maintenance allocation, once the detailed design is complete and a final estimate of the construction costs can be developed. I can advise that funding was also provided to manage the impact of the most recent slippage further along Glenshesk Road associated with storm Bert. I am pleased to confirm that remedial works are now complete at that location.”
“I am happy for my Department to engage in any conversations as to how we assist the public, whether in accessing healthcare or other matters, particularly in rural communities. Many rural communities have been left behind for far too long when it comes to the provision of public transport. Even as part of the community transport review that I am carrying out, we will have to look at how we deliver that transport in a different way in order to ensure that there is equal access to services for rural communities.”
“<BR /> <BR />The suite of transport plans will not consider changes to community transport operations, as those matters are being considered separately by the Department at a regional level and will be integrated into the plans as appropriate. While health and social care transport is the responsibility of the Department of Health, the transport plans will consider access, including by public transport, to the main health and social care facilities.”
“I met Ministers Nesbitt and Muir on 9 September to discuss the cross-departmental working group on community transport, which I established in my previous time as Minister. We collectively agreed that the group will look to consider whether transport in the community can provide a more cost-effective, value-for-money service delivery model to meet the needs of users, and to investigate the potential for community transport providers to be part of a collaborative group of transport options and pathways that can be accessed by the population. My officials are preparing a new transport strategy and a new suite of transport plans that will set the framework for transport policy and investment decisions until 2035.”
“Safety in general is one of the factors that is taken into account in the provision of street lighting. I am aware of the launch of the policy on ending violence against women and girls. A number of areas in my Department will have to have a rethink as to what services we provide and how we provide them. I believe that the street lighting policy will fall under that.”
“The future delivery of that project rests with the local transport plan. We hope to be in a position to launch a consultation on the Derry City and Strabane District Council transport plan early next summer: I believe that the date is set for that. That will then fit into how we strategically move traffic in and around that area and how we deal with the traffic, given, for example, the increasing numbers of students at the Magee campus. It is an important consultation and plan, and I have no doubt that the Member will be able to respond to them in due course.”
“My Department's policy on the provision of street lighting in rural areas is detailed in policy and procedure guide E072. The policy, which has been in place since 1993, uses two main criteria when considering the provision of street lighting in rural areas. They relate to the density of development along a road or where lighting is likely to help at sites that have a significant history of night-time collisions. There must be at least 10 dwellings located within a continuous 200-metre road length to qualify for the installation of street lighting. In applying that rule, dwellings must front the road that is being considered for lighting. At present, the section of the Buncrana Road near Coshquin does not meet the criteria under that departmental policy.”
“The Member raises a relevant and important point about the inclusivity of active travel moving forward. We are working closely with the Inclusive Mobility and Transport Advisory Committee (IMTAC) on that. I believe that Dermot Devlin was present and gave an address at the recent launch of the document. We are engaging closely with the disabled community on the issue. They are important stakeholders in the discussion on active travel and how we plan for it. I encourage anyone with views on active travel to respond to the consultation.”
“The supplementary question does not relate to the original question, but the Member has given us a comprehensive update on the project.”
“As I mentioned, I recently launched the active travel consultation document. I encourage Members and others to make themselves familiar with that document and respond to it in due course. It sets out the Department's vision of what active travel will look like in the future. We have given a number of examples and locations where we would like to see active travel projects go ahead. It is important that local communities and elected representatives feed into the consultation in order to make the document as inclusive as possible.”
“The Member will be aware that the project received planning permission in September 2022 and has gone through the local council. All the issues related to residents' concerns will have been dealt with through the planning process. My understanding is that Ards and North Down Borough Council is moving ahead with the project. It is regrettable that there are concerns. I do not know all the circumstances — there are often understandable concerns about changes in neighbourhoods and to the environment around citizens — but the planning process has to take all that into account and come to a decision. A decision has been made by Ards and North Down Borough Council to proceed with the project.”
“The plan sets out how my Department will prioritise and deliver high-quality active travel infrastructure, particularly for shorter, everyday journeys. I encourage everyone to engage with the consultation to help to shape our priorities for the delivery of pedestrian and cycling infrastructure improvements in our villages, towns and cities now and into the future.”
“The proposed pedestrian and cycle bridge forms part of the Newtownards to Bangor greenway. Planning approval for the project, including the bridge, was granted in September 2022. Ards and North Down Borough Council is leading on the delivery of the project, and I am pleased that my Department has been able to provide 50% of the capital funding required to bring it forward. We know that greenways contribute positively to local communities and can bring many health and economic benefits. I look forward to seeing that happening here. <BR /> <BR />With respect to active travel more generally, Members may be aware that I recently launched a public consultation on a draft active travel delivery plan for the North.”
“My Department and I have set out alternatives for commuters coming into the city, and I encourage others to encourage commuters to plan how they travel into the city.”
“I understand that the Department for Communities is bringing forward a specific programme of work for Sandy Row, and fair play to it for doing so. I am aware that the business organisations in the city regularly meet my Executive colleagues to discuss issues. Again, I emphasise that one of the reasons why Belfast is so busy with traffic is that it is doing particularly well commercially. Like all businesses, businesses in Belfast are still recovering from the impact of COVID-19, and this season is particularly important to them. I will work with businesses on that matter. I again ask Members this: if you are saying that there is chaos in Belfast, what message does that send to people who want to come into the city to enjoy its sights and sounds?”
“We will progress that, and it will provide more public transport infrastructure in the city for those who wish to travel into and across the city.”
“I have often heard the leader of the Opposition talking about being a constructive Opposition. What is constructive about misrepresenting what I have just said? I said that I agreed to meet the group. The date that goes into my diary is organised between my private office and the organisation that I am meeting. I emphasise that the date was agreed. When I became aware that the business group had concerns, I rightly asked my private office to contact it again to see whether we could bring the meeting forward, and we have done that. <BR /> <BR />When will Belfast Rapid Transit phase 2 (BRT2) be in place? When I am in a position to make an announcement. I hope that that will be before the end of the calendar year. If it is not before the end of the calendar year, it will be immediately after the end of the calendar year.”
“I have, however, given instructions to the group to improve its communications with the business groups, because they are key stakeholders. <BR /> <BR />In regard to my being embarrassed about overturning a decision, until I heard about it on the radio this morning, I was not aware that I would not be meeting the Chamber of Commerce until January. I am not involved in putting meetings in my diary. I agree to meet groups, and, rightly, my private office organises those meetings. The meeting date was agreed — agreed — between my private office and the business group. When I became aware that the business group had concerns, I was happy to bring the meeting forward. I have a very good working relationship with the Belfast Chamber of Commerce and other commercial groups across the North.”