Infrastructure – Page 4 – Slugger O'Toole

Energy crisis: Gas to rise 50%, consumers paying £1,000 more for energy than last year…

Brian O'Neill on October 21, 2021, 12:17 pm

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read, socks, coffee

This winter is looking absolutely grim. Supply problems for shops, staff shortages, health services on the verge of collapse it just gets bleaker and bleaker. The latest kick in the nuts is energy prices are expected to surge once again. From the Irish News: RISING costs have left the average consumer in the north paying £1,000 more for energy than last year, amid the worst price shock since the 1970s. Northern Ireland’s Utility Regulator has warned that soaring wholesale gas …

Ireland commits to funding Enterprise replacement from 2027 – what about NI?

Andy Boal on October 5, 2021, 1:22 pm

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The Irish National Development Plan is a long document, and I have had little time to do more than skim it, but the key headline spotted by Jonny McCambridge and noted by Mick, one of the concrete proposals in the plan, is the replacement for the Belfast-Dublin Enterprise service by 2027. The branded Enterprise service was introduced by the Great Northern Railway in 1947, and at one time was extended to Cork. NIR relaunched its side of the service in …

The bridge between Northern Ireland and Britain is no more…

Brian O'Neill on September 14, 2021, 12:17 pm

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golden gate bridge, suspension bridge, construction

To the surprise of no one, the treasury has knocked on the head the stupid idea of a bridge between Northern Ireland and Britain. Apart from the enormous cost, it would have been a massive engineering challenge. Not to mention over million tonnes of explosives and chemicals dumped in Beaufort’s Dyke. From the Guardian: Johnson was reportedly keen to link Northern Ireland to Great Britain as part of a broader vision to connect the constituent parts of the UK. But …

Time to be bold, let politics work and “arrest the spiral of unlearning we seem to be on”…

Terry Wright on September 9, 2021, 7:23 am

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clock, alarm clock, time

Reconciling Ireland by Richard Humphreys which details and analyses 50 Agreements between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom received an official online book launch hosted by the Irish Association and Queen’s University on 31 August. Asked by facilitator Freya Mc Clements, Northern Ireland correspondent of the Irish Times, which of the Agreements he would describe as a favourite, the author opted to nominate the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. In addition to his personal association with the process …

Flooding is our canary in the coal mine for the impact of climate change, says Sinéad McLaughlin

Paul Gosling on August 20, 2021, 9:05 am

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Belfast, Derry, Strabane and much of Ireland have suffered severe flooding problems in recent days and weeks. We know this will get even worse – with flooding become more intensive and more frequent. A new report says that climate change will be a particular problem for the West of Ireland, with even higher rainfall, leading to even more flooding. These are not problems we can ignore. I am discussing with the insurance industry how to ensure homeowners, tenants and businesses get the …

Belfast Rapid Transit (Glider) Phase 2 announced

Brendan Heading on August 1, 2021, 1:25 pm

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This week, Minister for Infrastructure Nichola Mallon launched the public consultation for Phase 2 of the Belfast Rapid Transit (Glider) system. I think this is a welcome development and will improve connectivity, access to and uptake of public transport in the city. I remember when Glider was first launched on the east/west route a few years ago. Before it got off the ground, it was fashionable to dump on it (a common pattern for public transport projects on this island). …

Water rates or hosepipe ban: why NI Water funding model needs to change…

Mick Fealty on July 21, 2021, 5:28 pm

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I was on Nolan to discuss a hosepipe ban that’s imminent. In England Severn Trent has asked people to conserve water, but there’s no ban. Water services in England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic have been investing massively in their systems. That’s not only brought leaks down within the system but allows them to keep up with ever rising demand as populations grow across these islands and demands shift up and down with the seasons. Meanwhile NI Water (as it …

We can’t keep putting off investing in NI Water…

Brian O'Neill on July 20, 2021, 9:52 am

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As you might have noticed it has been pretty hot the past few weeks. All this heat is not great for our water supplies and NI Water have warned that of supply shortages and a potential hosepipe ban. This happens most years, but it is a good reminder that we take water for granted. NI Water has been warning for years that we need to invest in our water infrastructure. There is the obvious part of the service – the …

Planning policy vital to a greener, more prosperous Northern Ireland

Soapbox on July 15, 2021, 1:04 pm

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Andrew Muir is the Alliance MLA for North Down Planning policy rarely makes the national headlines but directly touches upon the lives of everyone in Northern Ireland. Whether it’s an extension in your local area, a new housing development around the corner, or a major new business development that could provide jobs for thousands, planning matters. As an MLA at the Northern Ireland Assembly, planning issues are never far from the top of my inbox. Earlier this month the Department …

A chastened DUP which is willing to learn from its own mistakes might be the gift Donaldson needs. But is it?

Mick Fealty on June 24, 2021, 10:09 am

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Yesterday I was asked to do a couple of things in the media. One was on Andrew Neil’s new GB News station (which I can’t actually watch live) and the other was for The Irish Times Inside Politics podcast (starts about 33 minutes in): On both occasions I was asked to share my thoughts on the NI Protocol and the challenges facing the DUP leader elect, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. In preparing for both, a number of thoughts occurred to me …

Home Truths: A coherent case for investing in more social housing

Soapbox on June 24, 2021, 7:52 am

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It’s been fifty years since the establishment of the Housing Executive in 1971. Here, the organisation’s current Chairman, Professor Peter Roberts, delivers some home truths on social housing, arguing a partnership for change must be established to open the gates to a more positive future for housing in Northern Ireland. Over the past eight months, since Minister Ní Chuilín’s ambitious announcement on the future of housing and Minister Hargey’s commitment to the revitalisation of the Housing Executive, I’ve been asked …

Community Wealth Building

Paul Gosling on June 11, 2021, 9:06 am

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Concentration of the retail and consumer services sectors in the hands of a limited number of multinational corporations sucks wealth out of local communities and into the hands of shareholders based elsewhere. So should the response be to build the local economy by supporting independent businesses based in those localities, while maximising the spend of public and other anchor institutions in their local communities? That is the approach adopted through ‘community wealth building’, often termed ‘the Preston model’. Preston is …

Electric Vehicles are the future, and we need to invest in our charging infrastructure now…

Soapbox on May 23, 2021, 8:00 am

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By Rónán Davison-Kernan from EVANI. The group was formed in 2016 and earlier this year transitioned to become the Electric Vehicle Association Northern Ireland, a not-for-profit community interest company. Their two main aims are to represent the interests of electric vehicle users in Northern Ireland and to promote EV use here. Electric vehicle sales in Northern Ireland tripled between 2019 and 2020, going from 579 units to 1,680 – despite the pandemic. To put it another way, there were almost …

Tackling Northern Ireland’s Infrastructure Apartheid – Part 2, The Solution…

Steve Bradley on March 19, 2021, 8:04 am

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Read part one here… It is clear that Northern Ireland has a stark east-west divide in transport infrastructure. One which fails to fully reflect its population distribution, and raises questions of sectarian policymaking and a Belfast-centric nature to governance here. It is also clear that the era of car dominance in urban areas is slowly drawing to a close worldwide, which Northern Ireland will inevitably catch up with. Climate change and a desire for more liveable towns and cities will …

Tackling Northern Ireland’s Infrastructure Apartheid – Part 1 – The Problem…

Steve Bradley on March 18, 2021, 10:15 am

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Infrastructure has become a hot topic in NI since the London government established a ‘Union Connectivity Review’ (UCR) to recommend projects to strengthen links between the UK’s constituent parts. Since then the media has been consumed by the possibility of a physical connection between NI and Scotland – first in the form of a bridge and more recently an undersea tunnel, christened the ‘Boris Bridge’ and ‘Boris Burrow’ (though I would suggest a more appropriate title should incorporate the name …

Build Belfast Back Better – #imaginebelfast wants your ideas

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 15, 2021, 1:01 pm

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Ahead of next week’s packed programme, Imagine! festival are calling for your ideas to imagine a better post-pandemic Belfast. How would you Build Belfast Back Better? You can submit up to three ideas that reimagine the city in the face of the pandemic and the challenges presented by Brexit, increased poverty, loneliness and mental health issues.

Despite its problems the Protocol puts opportunity in the hands of NI’s politicians more than ever before

Mick Fealty on February 27, 2021, 6:18 am

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The frequent gracelessness of some DUP MPs (Sammy Wilson’s charmless swipe at Robin Swann this week was typical) means their critics often experience a pleasant frisson when sinking the boot as its many petty failures rise to the surface. But I don’t really get the party’s (or indeed wider unionism’s) flirtation with nixing the Northern Irish protocol. Even as tactic. I do see there’s a case for arguing that some activity, at the very least, sends a signal to the base that …

Boris’s burrow? Boring in more ways than one.

Andy Boal on February 19, 2021, 8:01 pm

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I do not promise an absence of any further puns in this piece. So last Sunday the big news was: we can’t put a bridge over the top of the Beaufort’s Dyke, so sure we’ll just build a tunnel round it. It’ll only be 25 miles long. Except… The Channel Tunnel is 37.92km (23.57 miles) from the English coast under Shakespeare cliff to the French coast at Sangatte. It takes a further 9.14km (5.68 miles) to reach the tunnel mouth …

Northern Ireland, the Protocol and our bumpy ride on the vagaries of market regulations…

Mick Fealty on February 12, 2021, 6:17 pm

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It’s been a mad few weeks. As Taoiseach Micheál Martin has noted in an interview with the BBC’s Fergal Keane yesterday, that ramping up has not just come from within unionism… “I worry about the post-Brexit noise from EU member states towards Britain and vice versa. I would tell one or two of them that they need to cool it, dial it down. “This isn’t an ongoing battle between the UK and some of the bigger beasts of Europe. Let’s move away …

Republic is discovering that only vaccines not lockdown can provide an end to #Covid_19

Mick Fealty on January 4, 2021, 12:47 pm

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Just three weeks ago an Irish Examiner headline writer told us that whilst Ireland’s Covid cases are rising, “we are still in a good position compared to our neighbours”. Not that you’d guess that from the complete funk the Dublin media just now. The 14-day incidence rate for infections in Ireland is currently 80.4 per 100,000 which is the second lowest in the EU. Only remote Iceland is doing better with a rate of 49.3 cases. Yesterday The Irish Times noted that …