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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“Given the scale of work that we undertake, it is not always possible to have contracts delivered at a time that we find most favourable, be that due to cost, school times or whatever it may be. We have to align our contractors to the delivery of projects when they are available — we work with them on that — and when we have the finance to do so.”
“I do not know that I can be specific about that site, because I do not have the information in front of me. I imagine that, if a contractor has equipment and staff lined up for a job, there will be additional costs as a result of a cessation of work. However, it is important that we suspend some work of that sort around the Christmas period and allow traffic to flow more freely, not only in Belfast but in other towns and cities, because it is an important part of the year for many of our traders.”
“Yes. My Department looks at the methods and at how we can use innovative measures to improve our reaction to and efficiency of road maintenance and to reduce the cost of road maintenance, which is always a challenge. I assure the Member that we are future-focused in how we deliver that service.”
“The answer is yes. I have been provided with resource allocation of £22·8 million, which will allow me to take a number of measures. I will be delivering a full winter service in line with last year's, and I have provided money to NI Water and Translink. I have also invested around £15 million, I think, in my Roads division for road maintenance and upgrades and for street lighting.”
“I have had many conversations with my planning officials as to how we expedite planning matters, but the Member will appreciate that due process and due diligence have to be followed. I am acutely aware of the upcoming Open and the potential need for tourist accommodation in the area, so I assure the Member that the matter has my full attention.”
“In fairness, I think that that application came into my Department in early September. If I am correct, it was sent to us by the local council, which suggests that it is technical in nature and that there are issues that have to be resolved. My officials will work their way through those issues as quickly as possible, and I will then be in a position to make a decision. I would not say that an application lodged in September is overly delayed at this stage.”
“My message is always the same in relation to these matters: people have to be in problem-solving mode rather than being simply in problem mode. It is vital that all of us — NI Water, developers, me and whoever — include in our minds how we will solve the problem. That is where the mindset is at. I have allocated an additional £19·5 million from the October monitoring round to NI Water to assist it to deal with the challenges it faces in providing waste water treatment, protecting the environment and other matters. I would like to be in a position to allocate more, but an investment of £19·5 million is quite significant.”
“I do not have a definitive timescale. I would obviously prefer it to happen sooner rather than later. It will probably require primary legislation, which means that it will have to be properly thought out and developed through the normal legislative processes of the House. Obviously the Committee will be key to that.”
“At the moment, it is not. If you do not have a site or planning permission, I do not see how you can spend a budget. A number of barriers have to be overcome there. The site has to be identified, and planning permission has to be granted, and then the thorny question of budget comes alive.”
“NI Water has advised me that it has not secured a site for the new waste water pumping station at Coshquin and, therefore, does not have planning permission to operate the waste water treatment works. The Coshquin waste water treatment works cannot be upgraded until a site has been identified and secured, and it then must go through the planning process. Therefore, the Cashel housing development cannot progress until a site has been identified and planning permission granted. NI Water has been in negotiations with the landlord of the preferred site since August 2023. As the negotiations have been unsuccessful to date, NI Water is also investigating alternative sites.”
“Yes. We have to make park-and-ride services accessible and understandable to drivers. I will use the example of Sprucefield park-and-ride. Up to this stage, it has been difficult, I am sure, for drivers even to understand that there is a park-and-ride there. I have asked my officials to bring forward measures to ensure that we inform drivers who go past Sprucefield that there is a park-and-ride there, how to use it and the benefits of using it. Those of us who are privileged enough to be driven about will note, when sitting in traffic, the number of buses that go past. The people who go to Belfast on those buses get there before any of us. Let us sell that benefit to commuters and ensure that they have all the information that is at hand.”
“I have established a working group in my Department that includes officials from DFI Roads and others to engage with Translink, the PSNI and the city council. It meets on a regular basis and analyses the condition that the roads were in on previous evenings. It will bring proposals to me on how we can help to alleviate the pressures that are on the roads in Belfast city centre and the surrounding district. I reiterate the message that we need more and more people to use public transport. That is probably the best way to alleviate the pressures, but there are other measures that we can take. I am looking at the provision of public advertising and real-time information to drivers and others about the traffic issues that are in the Belfast area.”
“We will seek a speedy hearing of the case, at which we will present our arguments, as will the other party. A month's delay to a capital project of this scale can cost of millions of pounds. We are not at that stage yet, but if we go much further into the new year, we will be talking about millions upon millions of pounds of public money going to waste.”
“I have been advised that it would not be appropriate for me to name the challengers at this stage. However, I understand that there may be a hearing tomorrow, with each party setting out their initial case. At some stage then, there may be an opportunity for those who brought forward the case to be named, but it would not be appropriate for me to do that. <BR /> <BR />Like, I am sure, the vast majority of Members, I am greatly disappointed that the case has been brought forward. We are all aware of the need for the A5 in order to save lives, open up the north-west and provide for great connectivity. I assure the Member that my Department and I will defend the case robustly.”
“It will be a state-of-the-art building that will greatly enhance that area of Lurgan and send out the very strong signal that public transport is the way to go.”
“First, the increased frequency of the Belfast to Dublin connection and the closure of the three sets of gates in Lurgan could have been better managed earlier in the application process for additional funding for the early service to the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). Hindsight is a great thing, but, during planning, greater attention should have been paid to reducing the length of time that gates are closed in that area. My Department and Translink will now have to look at that to see how we can alleviate the issue, and that will be quite an expensive operation. <BR /> <BR />The investment in the railway station sends out a signal to the people of Lurgan that Translink and my Department are invested in them. I am sure that the Member has seen the drawings, as have I.”
“My Department has already provided £2 million towards the project for the purchase of land adjacent to the station for the new park-and-ride site. <BR /> <BR />Translink has commenced the first step of the planning and engagement process for the proposed redevelopment by submitting a proposal of application notice (PAN) to Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council. An application for planning approval for the new station will be submitted to the local council by Translink after community consultation is completed later this month.”
“The new station will replace the one built in the 1970s with a modern, state-of-the-art facility that will provide a greatly needed enhanced passenger experience. It will be fully inclusive and will be a catalyst for future investment in the Lurgan area. It will also promote sustainable transport options and act as an enhanced gateway to the wider rail network across the island of Ireland. It will involve demolishing the existing station building and the adjacent Musgrave MarketPlace building to provide a new railway passenger facility. There will be an additional 60 park-and-ride spaces, a sheltering canopy on both platforms and a pedestrian/cycle bridge that will link the station building and platforms.”
“They are having an impact, and you can see that in the response times from DFI Rivers. I have made a separate submission to the transformation fund to recruit staff for a number of areas in my Department. They will assist in lowering the response times for planning applications in order to speed up the planning process.”
“As has been said many times in the Chamber by many different Ministers, the austerity of the past 14 years has left a deep scar across our public services. We have not been able to recruit and maintain staff at the level that we would otherwise have achieved. As I said in answer to the original question, I am running a recruitment exercise. I hope to bring more and more people into my Department and put them into front-line services not only to ensure that we have an effective and efficient public service response to flooding incidents but to put us into a position to plan for flooding events and to do the research to allow us to determine whether we need capital expenditure for hard, fixed flood defences or for other forms of flood defences.”
“Last October, when we faced flooding emergencies, we moved staff from various elements of my Department to the direct, front-line emergency response. Following the flooding that we witnessed last year, the Member may recall that Storm Ciarán bore down on us. Thankfully, that storm diverted, and we did not get the worst of it. We would have faced serious challenges at that time had Storm Ciarán hit us, because staff cannot work 24 hours every day, and many of my staff were out in all sorts of conditions dealing with the original flooding. Storm Ciarán would have presented us with huge problems. As I said in answer to the Member's original question, we are running a recruitment exercise and hope to recruit over 300 professional technical employees across my Department.”
“<BR /> <BR />In addition, working in partnership with Civil Service HR, and recognising that not all competitions can be brought forward at the same time, we have agreed a prioritised recruitment model, and plans are being progressed for the launch of about 10 professional and technical recruitment campaigns before the end of the calendar year. The prioritised competitions aim to recruit about 300 professional and technical employees across my Department and will be used to fill vacancies in the water and departmental delivery group.”
“As I said, my Department has been operating in a difficult financial environment for a number of years. Officials have advised that operating with the current level of vacancies has had an impact on the delivery of some operational flood risk management policy and IT functions. That also impacts on our ability to increase capital investment in new and existing flood risk management infrastructure and hinders our ability to improve our planning consultation response timelines. <BR /> <BR />My officials are mindful, however, of the need to maintain, so far as is possible, service delivery. For example, during the flooding that occurred last year, my officials quickly moved staff from non-operational roles to support the effective overall multi-agency emergency response.”
“It will hopefully be a mixture. Significant investment is involved in providing the infrastructure needed for Glider routes, such as road widening and improvement and bus stop infrastructure. I will make a definitive statement in the next number of weeks.”
“I say to the Member that I commit to being hopeful that I will be able to make an announcement in the next number of weeks. Although I would much prefer to undertake the £140 million-odd scheme, I can make significant input into improving public transport options for people in Belfast, north and south, by investing the £35 million, or slightly more than that, in the time ahead. I therefore plan to move ahead, make an announcement and commence works to improve public transport options for people in north and south Belfast.”
“<BR /> <BR />As the Member will know, my Department has been operating in what has been a difficult financial period for the past number of years, but we plan to make progress using the city deal funding that is available to us.”
“The estimated cost of the north Belfast to south Belfast Glider route is in the range of £142 million to £148 million. Although £35 million of funding has been secured through the Belfast region city deal, a considerable shortfall of some £110 million remains. Work on the feasibility of extending the route to Glengormley and Carryduff has been finalised, and I commissioned work on the delivery options that could be implemented utilising the £35 million funding envelope from the city deal. The outline business case is being finalised in line with the feasibility reports and delivery options. When my officials have concluded that work, I will be in a position to make a decision.”
“I am not sure. I will ask my private office whether there are records. It may be that there are records for the Strangford constituency or for the council area — they sometimes swap over — but, if they are available, I will ask for them to be shared with the Member.”
“Each location is judged on its own merits and, as I said, against the departmental policy, which has been in place for a significant number of years. Safety — road safety and pedestrian safety — is one of the characteristics of that policy against which locations are judged. The other thing that we have to be mindful of — safety will always come first — is that street lighting, particularly in rural areas, can have a detrimental impact on fauna and on human health. We have to judge all those considerations against the current policy, but, where they meet our policy requirements, street lights will be replaced.”
“As I said in my answer to the substantive question, there has been a significant change in our street lighting over the past number of years. Members of the public will have noticed that, in some areas, street lighting poles and equipment have been removed because they do not fit with the policy that has been in place for a number of years. That has caused some upset in certain areas, but the current policy dictates that, when street lighting has reached an age at which it requires replacement, it will be evaluated on whether it meets the current street lighting policy. If it does, it will be replaced. If it does not, it will not be replaced.”
“If the Member has any specific areas in mind, he should feel free to contact my private office. I will ensure that they are followed up. Street lighting provides a safer environment for people to use pathways, walkways, active travel routes etc. The Member is right to raise the concerns about safety for women, particularly after recent events in Derry. I assure you that my Department will play whatever role it can in ensuring that the street lighting that is in place is serviced and maintained properly. As I said, if the Member has any specific areas of concern, he should feel free to contact my office.”
“I am pleased to inform the Member that, for the current financial year, I have been able to allocate funding to enable my Department to provide a full street lighting maintenance service, with outage repairs generally being carried out within the established target of five working days. My Department has replaced approximately 80% of its sodium lighting stock with LED units, which, as well as delivering sufficient reductions in electricity consumption and carbon production, has greatly reduced the number of street lighting outages on the network due to the longer operating lifetime of LEDs. I will continue to seek funding to convert the remainder of the network at the earliest opportunity.”
“The Dublin Government have been able to subsidise Iarnród Éireann to a higher degree than I have been able to subsidise Translink. They seem to have quite a healthy bank balance and they are able to subsidise public transport to a greater degree than I am. That is the reason for it. Translink is making some adjustments to fares on the Belfast to Dublin route in a bid to correct that anomaly.”
“I will raise the matter directly with Translink to see what lessons can be learned. Our message, correctly, is that we want to attract more people to use public services and public transport, but we have to get it right so that people will use them.”
“I saw some social media activity on that matter. I apologise to those who were left behind and did not get the service that they should have been getting.”
“As part of the all-island rail review, there is a feasibility study on how we can have better connectivity with Belfast City Airport to encourage more and more people to use public transport and ensure that it is safely accessible. That work is ongoing.”
“It has thus far, despite the teething problems that I outlined to Mr Butler, proved successful. It will encourage more and more people to use public transport, locally and in the border corridor. There are some operational issues, outside my jurisdiction and outside our control, in the Dublin area, with increased train traffic there, but, overall, it has been a success.”
“The timetabling of trains etc is an operational matter for Translink. However, such matters should be kept under review, because we are, thankfully, seeing an increase in the number of passengers using public services. As with any new operation, there will be teething problems, as I outlined in my initial response. I am keen that Translink keeps those matters under review and that, where lessons can be learned, it learns them. If new services need to be provided or services have to be adjusted to accommodate the increased uptake, that should be done.”
“It is, however, important to emphasise that those are minor teething issues and that, overall, the opening of Grand Central station has resulted in a growth in passenger numbers on the local and cross-border corridors.”
“The Member will be aware that rail services commenced from the new Belfast Grand Central station on 13 October 2024. Translink has confirmed that, despite rigorous testing and training in the run-up to the opening, a small number of technical issues emerged in the first few days of operation. Those were limited to train announcement issues and two services being altered by less than five minutes to accommodate passenger traffic flow. In addition, one set of point assets failed, which, upon further investigation, resulted in a component being replaced. Finally, delays on the cross-border network in the greater Dublin area, coupled with seasonal constraints, resulted in minor delays to some trains.”
“I thank the Member for her question. Engagement with the FCA does not fall under my remit. It may fall under that of the Department for the Economy or, indeed, the Department of Finance. <BR /> <BR />With the flood maps, we now have a detailed analysis of where flooding is likely to occur. I accept that it may cause challenges for homeowners when their homes are identified as being in flood areas, but it allows my Department to plan an effective and efficient response to flooding and to put in place measures such as flood defences. They are of huge benefit to our society. <BR /> <BR />I accept the Member's point. I am happy to engage with any group in that regard, but I will engage first and foremost with the Department of Finance and the Department for the Economy to ensure that I am not stepping on anybody's toes.”
“I am aware that NI Water and Uisce Éireann have been working jointly in that regard and that they have submitted a bid to the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) to have funding allocated to that project. I am optimistic that that funding bid will be successful. However, a formal announcement on it cannot take place until after the general election in the South.”
“I do not have the exact figures for budget allocation in front of me. As with all areas of public services, the budgets are under constraint, even in relation to flooding response. However, it has to be said that, despite those constraints, if we look at the flooding incidents last year, we see that my Department along with others responded to that emergency very well.”
“Through that community resilience work, my Department seeks to provide an extra layer of support in addition to the normal responses for those who may be impacted on by flooding in periods of severe weather. <BR /> <BR />In addition, my Department operates an on-call duty and flooding officer rota system 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with staff on standby to respond to flood situations.”
“<BR /> <BR />Within the area of the Fermanagh lakelands, my Department, along with multi-agency partners, has developed a specific plan for when water levels rise and agreed thresholds are reached on Upper Lough Erne. That plan has been developed through the flooding and severe weather group, which is chaired by my Department, and it assesses the risks and potential impacts of water levels on low-lying roads in the locality around Lough Erne. In addition, and through the work of the regional community flood resilience group, there has been engagement with the local Boho community group to help it prepare for and respond to weather-related emergencies and to provide coordinated multi-agency support to individual properties or communities that may be cut off by flood water and require access to essential services.”
“My Department is the lead Department for the strategic coordination of the emergency response to significant flooding, and my officials have worked with partner organisations to develop a multi-agency severe weather plan for emergencies that occur anywhere across the North. That plan details the pre-planned arrangements for a coordinated multi-agency response as a result of a warning for severe weather. <BR /> <BR />The Department’s preparations for the response to severe weather, including flooding, is an ongoing process throughout the year. The unpredictable nature of weather events means that heavy rainfall can occur at any time, and, as winter arrives, there can be an increased risk of adverse weather that can lead to flooding conditions.”
“In my opinion, it makes for more coherent policy direction for our airports. DFE already has the significant proportion of those airport responsibilities. The small matters that I look after, such as management of land adjacent to airports and noise control, fit better with DFE and allow a single point of contact for airports.”
“Thank you. My Department has no role or remit as regards air passenger duty. Those matters fall under DFE.”
“I missed the start of the question, but I think that it is in relation to —. Sorry?”
“The York Aviation report also calls for a clear structure of responsibility for aviation policy development in the North, and I have helped provide a pathway for this by agreeing in principle to the transfer of my airport responsibilities to the Department for the Economy. The current split in responsibility is a consistent cause of concern amongst airport and airline stakeholders, as they believe that it leads to a lack of coherence. The steps that I have taken, along with the development of an airport policy, should help address this issue.”