MEET THE MINISTER: Problems, plans and public purse ... Nichola Mallon on "huge portfolio"

Daily life as we know it is shaped by the Department for Infrastructure.

With the new DfI executive Minister in post for one week now, we caught up with Nichola Mallon - and she laid out the challenges and opportunities on the 'road' ahead for her department.

It's after an executive was nominated when the parties at Stormont agreed to restore power-sharing, by accepting a deal tabled by the governments of the UK and Ireland.

The DfI's huge brief encompasses not just roads but ports, bridges, public transport, footpaths and cycle lanes, street-lighting, and the water and waste systems homes and businesses rely on.

“It's a really huge portfolio,” said Nichola Mallon, the DfI’s Minister. Speaking to Downtown Cool FM news about her brief and plans, she said the stalemate at Stormont has meant there are many decisions which now need to be taken.

“With that comes huge challenges - we haven’t had a government in three years so there hasn’t been decision making for three years, which has led to quite significant back log.

“We have also had significant budget cuts for several years in this department which presents significant challenges for example if you think of our street lighting.

“There’s a need for urgent investment in our water and out waste water infrastructure, so that we can build more homes. We have 40k people on the waiting list for a home,” she said.

Greener infrastructure and sustainable transport is high on the DfI agenda moving forward, as Minister Mallon says ‘we all have a role to play’ in the ‘climate emergency’. She said: “I want to do what I can to push greener transport, sustainable transport and greener infrastructure. So, I want to be supporting people to walk to school and to work, to cycle and to use our public transport.

“I want to encourage people to change the way they transport themselves to ultra-low carbon emissions, so I’ve taken the decision as a minister to travel by e-car and that's something that i would like to encourage others to do and increase e-charging points as well.

“It's also about maximising our greenway, so creating green spaces where people can travel but also can engage with each other and exercise because as well as that being really important for the climate, it's also really important for mental and physical health, so I want to work with all government departments,” she explained.

All of these plans, however, cannot be achieved for nothing. Speaking of the financial package on offer thus far from the UK government, she said it was ‘disappointing’ that it didn’t meet the ‘ambition’ the parties had.

“Undoubtedly, we have huge financial challenges and I have to make decisions.”

“We were very much encouraged in the talks process to have ambition, particularly around the programme for government and the policies the parties were building consensus on and entering into the executive on.

“I think it is very, very disappointing to see that the financial package currently being offered doesn’t meet the scale of that ambition and that's something that we want to work with treasury on, we don’t believe that it's the end of the matter,

However, she did admit it was pleasing to see that despite finances below expectations, there is an upfront commitment to infrastructure investment in the ‘New Decade, New Approach’ deal.

“So, there's specific reference to waste water infrastructure which is key to building homes and creating jobs, but there are also specific projects that are named so we have the A5, the A6, the York Street interchange, high speed rail connection between Dublin and Belfast which I think is really important, we have Narrow Water Bridge, Ulster Canals greenways, so there are a number of named projects which bring benefits in terms of connecting people, boosting tourism and protecting the natural environment.”

If I had a blank cheque, I would be able to do the key strategic things we are committed to but also do a lot more and go much further. But I’m determined that I'm taking a balanced approach. There are things that I absolutely must do, and I will, but there are some things that we could be doing like encouraging people to cycle our green-way that don’t cost a huge amount of money but can make a huge difference.

“Undoubtedly, we have huge financial challenges and I have to make decisions,” Minister Mallon continued, adding that the department has never recovered from severe cuts made a number of years ago, which meant that only highest priorities are addressed.

“When we're trying to balance out priorities, we have big strategic, flagship projects and then we have things we could do that are brand new, but we also have to know that for people, potholes and street lighting are really important issues, it's right on their doorstep, so I’m hoping to have very constructive and positive discussions with the minister for finance for example, to see can we release some money to address those issues on people's doorsteps.”

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