30 June 2025 

Finance Minister John O’Dowd may end up reallocating or returning hundreds of millions allocated to the A5 project after the planning decision he oversaw in a previous ministerial role was overturned by a court, the Opposition leader has said.

Today in the Assembly, O’Dowd, who is now Finance Minister but was previously the infrastructure minister who granted planning permission for the A5 project, admitted that the status of the £181.5 million allocated to the project in this year’s Executive Budget was now uncertain after the High Court overturned the decision and plunged the project into doubt.

It means that O’Dowd, who has faced questions about his handling of the failed planning decision, may now have to reallocate money for the A5 if it is impossible to spend on the project in this financial year. Earlier today First Minister Michelle O’Neill faced robust Opposition questions over Sinn Féin ministerial competence.

Leader of the Opposition Matthew O’Toole said:

“The failure of the A5 scheme encapsulates so much of what has gone wrong with major project delivery in the North. Official incompetence and political failure have jeopardised so many projects, but now, as Justice McAlinden said last week, the failure of the A5 project will put lives at risk.

“And now the sense of dark farce continues because the Minister responsible for the failed A5 planning decision could be the same hapless Minister who has to reallocate nearly £200 million which cannot be spent in this financial year on the project.

“This development only underlines the need to urgently understand what the Executive intends to do next in order to deliver the life-saving A5 project. Michelle O’Neill said earlier it would take more than soundbites to deliver the A5: but currently that is all she and her ministerial colleagues are offering.”