Roads Minister ‘Should Get Out More’ - McGlone

SDLP Deputy Leader, Patsy McGlone, has questioned the Regional Development Minister’s reliance on information filtered through his department’s senior civil service staff. The Mid Ulster MLA was speaking after the Roads Minister denied receiving any reports of inadequate salt and grit reserves in rural Mid Ulster during last year severe winter.

Mr McGlone said, “It beggars belief that the Roads Minister was unaware of the difficulties faced by residents in rural Mid Ulster last year.

“I personally wrote to the Minister on three occasions to highlight the problems being experienced in the Sperrins and loughshore area.

“After the debacle of NI Water I would have thought the minister would have learned his lesson and would no longer be relying solely on the information his civil servants allow him to see.

“Rather than waiting in his office for his Permanent Secretary to wake him up, the minister should get out more and take a look at the harsh realities rural residents have to cope with during the winter months.

“Having abandoned rural communities to deal with winter conditions by themselves it is not an excuse to claim that his civil servants never informed him that those communities were experiencing difficulties.

“The minister has claimed that, this year, Road Service is prepared for a ‘typical’ winter. He should have added ‘in urban areas’.

“The experience of rural communities demonstrates that we are to be subjected to a second-class service yet again.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Assembly Questions:
http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/record/reports2010/101116.htm#a3