Department for Infrastructure undermined and NI left in the dark by Westminster’s funding shortfall
DESPITE the heroic efforts of hundreds of staff from the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) working around the clock in atrocious conditions to grit and snowplough our roads network, there has still been significant disruption.
Schools have been forced to close, business and commerce have been adversely affected and there have been road accidents and cars abandoned.
Shockingly, until as late as October 2017 DfI did not have the capacity to make financial provision for such winter service in the current financial year. Thankfully for our community, in-year monitoring of departmental budgets and underspends elsewhere allowed the reallocation that is funding the activity we are witnessing.
The ongoing problems faced by DfI, are outlined in the briefing on the Northern Ireland Budgetary Outlook 2018-20. This sets out various scenarios by which the NI Budget might be balanced (as it has to be). This follows cuts to the block grant by Westminster, which match the extreme austerity imposed on public expenditure in Britain.
Unfortunately, because of severe cuts made in 2014/15 to its predecessor, the Department for Regional Development, DfI has never achieved a reasonable baseline in its budget. Given that there is no activity that the public would want the department to abandon, it has simply been forced, among other things, to underfund Translink, leaving it to exhaust its financial reserves, pay less to Northern Ireland Water than the regulator has determined reasonable and to reduce routine maintenance of roads.
But perhaps the most telling example of this man-made crisis lies in the budget scenarios outlined that require the abandonment of funding for public street lighting by DfI.
Notwithstanding the obvious problems that will arise in safety, with an annual energy bill of just over £12m, street lighting is simply not affordable within the DfI’s likely budget allocation.
The Westminster Government, without a vote to its name in Northern Ireland, has truly cast us into the shadows.
MICHAEL ROBINSON Newtownabbey, Co Antrim