Nichola Mallon: Northern Ireland’s infrastructure under critical pressure

Street lights are broken, there is not enough money to resurface some roads, public transport is struggling to cope and waste water networks are at full capacity, the SDLP Assembly member added.

She met Northern Ireland Office (NIO) minister Robin Walker on Wednesday afternoon to press the case for more Treasury backing for the new power-sharing administration at Stormont.

Ms Mallon said: “The British government just needs to get on with it in terms of honouring their commitments that they made in terms of the New Decade, New Approach agreement.

“It is about all of us stepping up and recognising that infrastructure is the bedrock on which you have a thriving economy and inclusive society.”

Ms Mallon said the NIO minister had told her he would feed her concerns back to Cabinet colleagues and the prime minister.

She added: “I don’t think it is any secret that there are pressures, quite critical pressures across my government department.

“We only have to look at the broken streetlight situation, there is not enough money to be switching street lights on, there is not enough to fix potholes and resurface our roads.

“We have pressures on our public transport network, in our waste water infrastructure, in a number of areas we are at maximum capacity or almost maximum capacity, which is having a knock-on effect in terms of planning applications for housing.”

She said she had made her case to Finance Minister Conor Murphy.

“I am hoping that if we work together we can put the investment that is required in place.”