Official reveals A5 road costs soar to almost £200m - with the DUP saying not a single inch of tarmac has been laid
The beleaguered A5 road project is now costing the public tens of millions of pounds per year, with a total cost of almost £200m – despite the fact there has not been “a single inch of tarmac” laid, a DUP MLA has said.
The latest figures were revealed as a top civil servant gave evidence over the scheme to improve the road between the border at Monaghan, through the West and into Londonderry.
Emer Morelli, Permanent Secretary at the Sinn Fein-run infrastructure ministry, told MLAs that the £192.5m had been spent so far – with £36.8m spent in the last financial year.
Committee chair Jonathan Buckley says there is “real public anger” over the issue – and that it is an indictment of the political leadership of the department.
The DUP MLA said while any major project incurs costs before work commences – those costs “shouldn’t include the repeated vesting and reinstatement of land”.
However, the Stormont official defended the spend so far – saying that the business cases “demonstrate value for money”.
There have been calls for decades for improvements to the route, amid concerns about the number of fatal accidents. However, the scheme has faced fresh delays over the implications of Stormont’s climate change act.
Green targets imposed under the law led a judge to rule it could not go ahead in its current form, as it would undermine the legal commitment to net zero.
DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley said, “There is real public anger at the fact we are spending huge amounts of public money in Northern Ireland with nothing to show for it. We have seen it in the York Street where £27million has been spent with nothing to show for it. That figure pales in comparison to the A5 however.
“The Permanent Secretary confirmed that just short of £200million has been spent on this scheme and not been a single inch of tarmac has been laid. This represents a damning indictment on the ability of the Department to deliver large-scale projects, and ultimately of the political leadership at its helm. In the case of the A5 the public see it as nothing more than a dogs dinner.
“Whilst everyone accepts that any infrastructure project incurs costs before construction commences, those costs shouldn’t include the repeated vesting and reinstatement of land. The cost of that hokey cokey process for landowners and expenditure on repeated legal challenges are a financial deadweight on the public purse, with no current or future benefit to the people of Northern Ireland.
“Meanwhile, the unattainable net zero targets imposed and celebrated by some parties are a legislative and political deadweight. They are responsible for a significant proportion of the wasted money on this project. That is public money which has been wasted because of skewed priorities and a lack of willingness to deliver.”
During Wednesday’s meeting of the infrastructure committee, Ms Morelli said the department is expecting a decision in the courts this month over an appeal lodged by minister Liz Kimmins.
She also defended the department’s handling of the A5 project so far, saying that it had been supported by business cases.
“The delays that have led to construction price inflation, legal challenges and defending those legal challenges, would not necessarily have been the most value for money way forward. But that's the process that we work through, the democratic process.
“In my view, the costs incurred to date are not considered disproportionate when you look at the length of the scheme, the work that has been underdone to date”, Ms Morelli said.
Liz Kimmins’s top official said that “significant work has taken place” with regard to design, planning, development costs to date, accountability and due process.
In 2022, controversial climate legislation was passed by the assembly despite a warning from the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC) that its “ambitious” aims risked damaging the credibility of net zero plans in the province.
However, the assembly pressed ahead with targets of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, with an interim target of at least a 48% reduction by 2030.
Unionist parties have called for the targets to be revised, but so far, Sinn Fein has remained wedded to them.
Last month, a former Sinn Fein MP cited the seventeenth century arrival of Protestants in Ulster among the reasons why his former party has not delivered the A5.
Francie Molloy blamed some of the land owners along the proposed route of the A5 road, saying some of them had obtained the land “under strange circumstances” – saying “this all goes back to the plantation of Ulster”.