Tories forced to apologise over ‘insulting’ Bloody Sunday video
PAUL AINSWORTH, Irish News, May 2nd, 2026
CONSERVATIVE leader Kemi Badenoch was forced to apologise last night after posting a ‘back our troops’ video featuring paratroopers on Bloody Sunday.
The video was subsequently deleted after it was slammed as “disgusting” and an insult to victims.
The Tory leader’s video, which was labelled ‘Stop Labour’s Troubles Bill’, described soldiers who “risked their lives to protect others” while clips from the Troubles are shown.
However, the video, which opposed changes to Troubles legacy legislation first introduced by the previous Conservative government, featured clips taken on Bloody Sunday in Derry on January 30 1972.
Thirteen people were shot dead when members of the Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights marchers in the city, while a 14th person shot on the day died of their injuries four months later in hospital.
‘Disgusting, disgraceful and an insult to the innocent civil rights protesters murdered’
The actions of the paratroopers were described as “unjustified and unjustifiable” by her Tory leader predecessor David Cameron, when as Prime Minister in 2010 he offered a formal apology for the Bloody Sunday killings in Parliament following the release of the Saville Inquiry re-port.
Labour’s Troubles bill aims to replace the Tory Legacy Act which entered law in 2023, offering a conditional amnesty to those accused of killings – both former members of the security forces and paramilitaries – and bringing an end to Troubles-related inquests.
The new bill was backed by MPs on Tuesday, and if made law will end the controversial conditional immunity scheme that had been ruled unlawful in 2024 at the High Court in Belfast.
The bill would create a reformed Legacy Commission to investigate Troubles-era killings, and would also include protections for veterans, including no repeat investigations and the ability to give any future evidence in an investigation remotely and anonymously.
However, Tories have attacked the changes, and Ms Badenoch said in her video, over the footage including that taken on Bloody Sunday: “Think about the men and women who served this country during the Troubles. People who risked their lives to protect others. To defend our nation. To keep the peace.
“Now ask yourself, is it right that decades later they’re dragged back into court? Because that’s exactly what Labour’s new bill will do.”
She added that when in government, the Tories “passed laws to protect our veterans, because Britain should stand behind our veterans, not put them on trial decades later.”
The video was posted in the same week an inquest found two soldiers “lost control” in the fatal shootings of five people – a priest, three teenagers and a father-of-six – in west Belfast six months after Bloody Sunday.
Foyle SDLP MP Colum Eastwood said he was “shocked” at the choice of imagery used in Ms Badenoch’s video, which was deleted yesterday.
An insult
“It is disgusting, disgraceful and it is an insult to the innocent civil rights protesters who were murdered,” he said.
“Worse, the promo video is entirely about elevating the interests of British soldiers over the needs of victims and survivors who have been forced to fight against the power and might of the British state for decades seeking truth, justice and accountability for their loved ones.
“Even by the partisan standards of most Tory MPs on issues relating to the past in Northern Ireland, this is absolutely appalling.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch speaking in a video that featured Bloody Sunday footage
“We’re a long way away from former Prime Minister David Cameron’s powerful apology for the actions of soldiers on that day. My thoughts are with the families of the murdered and injured on Bloody Sunday. They have been forced to endure decades of pain and struggle but have maintained immense dignity throughout.”
After the video was removed from social media, Mr Eastwood said in a post to X: “She should apologise directly to the Bloody Sunday families and acknowledge that the politics of prioritising the interests of soldiers over the needs of victims is wrong.”
Chair of the Bloody Sunday Trust, Tony Doherty, lost his father on Bloody Sunday.
He said he was “astounded” at the video posted by Ms Badenoch.
“This is grossly insulting to the families and the people of Derry, and many other places in the north, who know only too well what role of the British army meant for them,” he said.
“It meant murder, lies and cover-up of many crimes that have never ever seen the inside of a courtroom.
“While she has deleted her video, she cannot delete the murderous history of the British Army, supported by the sectarian RUC, which went on for decades in the north of Ireland.”
Later yesterday, a Conservative spokesman said: “As soon as we were made aware of the footage, the video was taken down. We apologise for the inclusion of this material, which should not have been used and will not be used again.”
Dissident charged with New IRA police base bomb
LIAM TUNNEY, Belfast Telegraph, May 2nd, 2026
FORMER BELFAST PROVO (66) IS CONVICTED ROBBER
A dissident republican is due in court today charged with attempted murder after a car bomb attack on a PSNI station.
Kieran 'Zac' Smyth (right), a convicted robber originally from Short Strand but more recently living in west Belfast, was arrested under the Terrorism Act earlier this week. It followed an explosion at Dunmurry police station last Saturday. The New IRA admitted the attack, during which a delivery driver was hijacked and ordered to drive a device to the station.
Smyth (66) is also accused of possessing explosives with intent, causing an explosion likely to endanger life, possession of articles for use in terrorism and hijacking.
The man charged with attempted murder following an attack on a Northern Ireland police station is a well-known dissident republican from Belfast.
The New IRA admitted responsibility for the attack, during which a delivery driver was hijacked and ordered to drive a device to the station at Kingsway, Dunmurry, last Saturday.
The car exploded outside the station as people were being evacuated. Nobody was injured.
The incident is being treated by police as attempted murder. A 66-year-old man arrested under the Terrorism Act in the Dunmurry area on Tuesday has now been charged in relation to the incident.
That man is Kieran 'Zac' Smyth, originally from the Short Strand area but more recently living in west Belfast.
Smyth has been charged with a series of offences, including attempted murder, possessing explosives with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property, causing an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property, possession of articles for use in terrorism and hijacking by compelling the person to act.
He is expected to appear before Lisburn Magistrates Court this morning.
As is usual procedure, all charges will be reviewed by the Public Prosecution Service.
Blanket protest in 1970
Smyth was jailed for 14 years in 2015 following a violent house robbery on the home of a businessman in Ballynahinch two years previously.
Along with a criminal pal, Smyth broke into their 82-year-old victim's home and threatened to cut off his son's fingers before fleeing with £5,000.
Smyth was released on licence in September 2019, but was recalled to prison in March 2020 for breaching the terms of his release.
He absconded again in September 2021 and, after being returned to prison, was ultimately released in early 2024.
Originally from the Short Strand area, he was first jailed for nine years in the 1970s and took part in the IRA blanket protest in the Maze Prison.
Earlier this week, The Irish News reported the New IRA's claim that the attack in Dunmurry had been an attempt to kill police officers as they tried to leave the station. Police said they were aware of the claim and that the investigation remains ongoing.
On Tuesday, officers began a major checkpoint operation at several locations across Belfast in response to a dissident republican threat to attack officers in their homes.
Taoiseach hails importance of cross-border reporting
Micheál Martin delivered first annual lecture in memory of veteran RTÉ journalist Tommie Gorman
PAUL AINSWORTH, Irish News, May 2nd, 2026
TAOISEACH Micheál Martin has spoken of the importance of funding cross-border journalism as he remembered “giant” of Irish reporting, Tommie Gorman.
Mr Martin delivered the inaugural Tommie Gorman Memorial Lecture in Dublin, and said the former RTÉ News northern editor “brought a relentless search for facts and a sharp intellect when addressing issues at local, national and international levels”.
The taoiseach used the opportunity to speak of Shared Island funding to support all-island reporting “to ensure that we don’t only hear news on what is happening in Stormont or the Dáil or on the streets of Cork or Coleraine during a crisis but that the news, the regular daily news, better reflects politics and life across the island of Ireland”.
Tommie Gorman died in June 2024 at the age of 68, following a long battle with cancer.
The Sligo-born journalist started his distinguished career with the weekly Western People newspaper in Co Mayo, before he moved into broadcast reporting, joining RTÉ News in 1980 and becoming its Europe editor.
He took on the role of Northern editor in 2001, at a critical stage of the post-Good Friday Agreement peace process, and a year before the first collapse of the new power-sharing Assembly at Stormont.
He retired in 2021, and the following year launched his memoir My Life in Our Times in Belfast, at an event attended by media and political figures including thenfirst minister designate, Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill and former DUP leader and first minister Arlene Foster.
The new annual lecture dedicated to the late veteran journalist is organised by peace and reconciliation charity Co-operation Ireland.
Mr Martin told guests Mr Gorman had a “profound commitment to helping people in different parts of this island and in different communities to understand each other and overcome historic divisions”.
Building deeper understanding
“The Shared Island Initiative which I launched is built on the idea that we have to start building much deeper understanding and engagement,” the taoiseach said.
“After many wasted years, it aims to realise the full promise of the Good Friday Agreement through practical co-operation and improved connections between people across the island of Ireland.
“The Shared Island Fund will be supporting all-island reporting. This is to ensure that we don’t only hear news on what is happening in Stormont or the Dáil or on the streets of Cork or Coleraine during a crisis but that the news, the regular daily news, better reflects politics and life across the island of Ireland.”
He said a three-year €14 million programme administered by the Republic’s media regulator Coimisiún na Meán, will “encourage cross-border collaboration and cultural exchange, and to support new voices to create content that reflects the richness and diversity of life across the island”.
“Whether through the creation of new broadcast content, support for emerging talent, or strengthening cross-border journalism, the aim is to make those connections part of everyday life because, as Tommie knew so well, when people are better informed about each other – when they hear each other’s stories in a balanced and truthful way – it becomes easier to find common ground, and take the first steps and the next steps in building reconciliation and a better, shared future for all on the island of Ireland.” Mr Martin said.
Earlier in the lecture, the taoiseach praised Mr Gorman as “a giant of Irish journalism”.
“Across a remarkable 41-year career he made a sustained and important impact on the discussion and understanding of some of the most fundamental issues which have confronted our country,” he said.
Mr Gorman “believed in the central role of journalism in creating informed debate,” the Taoiseach said, adding: “Always operating to the highest ethical standards, he refused to go chasing cheap headlines, believing that short-term, trivial or agenda-driven reporting served no positive purpose.”
He praised the RTÉ man for founding a tradition of “top quality reporting from Brussels”, and in a reference to Brexit, said: “Nothing could be more damaging to our public interest than to allow political debate on Europe to descend to the level which has caused such historic damage in Britain.”
Speaking of media challenges in the digital era, including AI, Mr Martin said: “With disinformation now being turbo-charged, with the need for people to check the technology we rely on and with shared forums for discussion and information reaching fewer people, if we value our democracy, we have to take this seriously.”
‘Soldiers certainly not looking for immunity, but just a fair process’
REBECCA BLACK, Irish News, May 2nd, 2026
ARMED Forces veterans are not looking for immunity, but a fair and balanced process to deal with the past, Northern Ireland’s veterans commissioner has said.
David Johnstone described dealing with the past as a difficult issue that was not dealt with in the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.
He was speaking after a coroner found that soldiers had lost control and used unreasonable force in the shooting of five people in the Springhill area of west Belfast on July 9, 1972.
The shootings were attributed to soldiers A and E, however they have not been identified. Mr Justice Scoffield said there is little prospect of criminal convictions.
Families speaking outside court hailed legacy inquests as having been the best legal tool to deliver truth.
The Springhill inquest was the last to complete its evidence in 2024, hours before a deadline for the stop-ping for legacy court processes imposed by the previous government’s Legacy Act.
The current Government’s Troubles Bill, which is still going through the parliamentary process, is to replace that Act.
Immunity issue
West Belfast MP Paul Maskey expressed concern that the British Government will include immunity from prosecution for military veterans in new legacy legislation.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme, Mr Johnstone said: “The veterans that I represent are not looking for some type of immunity.
“What they do want is a fair and a balanced process that understands context and takes into account that the terrorists in Northern Ireland who waged such a savage sectarian war, in their words, from both sides of our community, who were given effective amnesty in 1998 had their evidence destroyed, and now we have British troops been analysed for split-second decisions – being pored over by a civilian judge who’s never been in that situation.
“That is the heart of the matter … unless you’ve been in a scenario where shots are coming at you, you’ve lost a colleague weeks earlier, I don’t believe any civilian judge can get in the mind of a soldier in that scenario and come to a decision of his decision making process. I don’t think that’s possible.”
In terms of the Springhill inquest, he said he wanted to acknowledge a significant and difficult day for the families.
However he questioned whether inquests are the best route for legacy cases.
“What veterans want, and what we’ve been lobbying for is a process that makes sure that there isn’t vexatious prosecutions, that our legal system is not used simply to bring forward cases where there’s no new evidence, and where the threshold of evidence has to reach a bar of the unreasonable doubt,” he said.
“That’s what we want, fairness and balance.”
Mr Maskey said the Springhill families “fought very hard for their loved ones for the truth to be told”.
Speaking on the same programme, the Sinn Fein representative said it is very important that victims’ families “get their day”, adding “it’s very important for the truth to come out”.
On the Troubles Bill, Mr Maskey said he wants to see an Act that has the confidence of victims and their families, is human rights compliant and can deliver truth and justice as envisaged in the 2014 Stormont House Agreement.
“There can’t be any amnesty for British soldiers because I don’t think families will ever accept that,” he said.
“I have concerns, I think many political parties have concerns, and more importantly victims’ families have concerns that that is what the British Government is going to try and bring forward.”
Council has wasted two years fighting over military covenant
Our man looks back on the some of the stories making the headlines over the last seven days
NEWTON EMERSON on the week that was, Irish News, May 2nd, 2026
UNIONISTS have secured a victory at Belfast City Council, against determined nationalist opposition, by signing the council up to the armed forces covenant.
This hopefully ends a pointless two-year argument.
Like most public bodies, the council is already required by UK wide legislation to have due regard to the covenant, which requires that service personnel, veterans and their families face no disadvantage in accessing public services.
However, unlike in the rest of the UK, councils here provide none of the services the covenant covers.
Its key mandatory services are health, education and housing, provided by Stormont departments that are also already required by law to observe the covenant.
The three departments in question have unionist ministers. The two DUP ministers, responsible for education and housing, have issued guidance and appointed officials to ensure the covenant is delivered.
In short, if anyone is still having trouble accessing services, it is unionism’s fault – and has been for as long as Belfast City Council has been arguing over it.
Inside civil war that tore apart DUP... and the changing fortunes of those who fought it
SUZANNE BREEN, Belfast Telegraph, May 2nd, 2026
Three leaders in 50 days. The DUP travelled to the edge of the political precipice five years ago on a journey that nobody could have ever imagined.
That self-portrait of the big happy family was never entirely true, yet nothing in the party's history indicated that it would tear itself apart in the way it did.
Edwin Poots' name might be the one most prominently associated with Arlene Foster's political assassination, but there were many fingerprints on the dagger.
Some 22 MLAs and four MPs — 80% of the party's Assembly and House of Commons representatives — signed a letter of no confidence in her. It was impossible to survive and, on April 28, 2021, Foster announced she was stepping down.
A previous LucidTalk poll for the Belfast Telegraph had shown the DUP on 19% — its lowest rating in two decades. With an Assembly election due the following year, many MLAs were worried about their futures, but there was more to it. There was a wave of public sympathy for the then First Minister, and some observers believed that misogyny was in play.
One MLA who had signed the letter hotly disputed that to me. He'd once been a big Foster fan, but said her communication with her Assembly colleagues had deteriorated.
They were treated “like something you'd scrape off your shoe”. He said they were sick of having their views either ignored or sidelined.
In the leadership race, Poots was first out of the stalls. He announced his leadership bid just a day after Foster said she was stepping down. His team were confident, but not complacent. Their man had a significant advantage over Westminster-based Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.
The party's 28 MLAs made up the overwhelming majority of the DUP's electoral college and, at Stormont, Poots was on home turf.
He knew what made his Assembly colleagues tick. He'd sat in their offices, had lunch with them countless times in the canteen and visited their constituencies. He was well-liked.
Along the corridors of Parliament Buildings, you'd rarely see Pootsie walking without a pal. It was hard for Donaldson to try to make up the ground in a short campaign. In terms of deep roots in the party, he couldn't compare with his rival. He'd joined at 41 after decades in the UUP. Poots had signed up at the age of 16.
Continuity candidate
At the heart of the latter's campaign was a reform agenda: to return the power from the big beast and backroom staff to MLAs. Donaldson was seen as the continuity candidate.
His leadership bid centred on having a much wider electoral appeal than Poots. The DUP wasn't just losing support to the TUV, it was haemorrhaging votes to Alliance and there was renewed competition from a Doug Beattie-led UUP.
Donaldson's camp argued that he was the supremely experienced figure. He was tried and tested — the proverbial safe pair of hands.
But backbench MLAs chose to slay the big beasts and take back control. Donaldson was defeated by 19 votes to 17. The DUP establishment was beaten, but only just.
Poots' first mistake in terms of party unity was in not paying tribute to his opponent in his first speech after his victory. Some around him behaved like they'd secured a 10-nil victory in normal time, when it was really 5-4 on penalties.
Poots didn't appoint a single MLA from the losing side to the four big ministries the party occupied. Paul Frew, who had been his campaign manager, replaced Diane Dodds in the economy. In education, Peter Weir was shown the door and Michelle McIlveen was ushered in. Poots wasn't helped by claims from Donaldson supporters of bullying at the DUP executive meeting at which he was ratified.
The brutish nature of Foster's ousting had already damaged the party's new leader in the public eye. A male politician toppling a female is always on potentially dangerous ground.
Boris Johnson's easy charm helped him get away with it regarding Theresa May. Poots didn't enjoy that advantage, and he wasn't media savvy.
The day after he got the job, the new DUP leader was pictured at his home with his Rottweiler Tyson in his first media interview.
Given the negative public perception that often surrounds the breed, a press officer — if consulted — would surely have advised against it.
As Poots took over the reins, some wrongly viewed him as a fundamentalist and hardliner. In reality, political pragmatism had long marked his career. The idea that he was going to be belting out the Sash and shouting No Surrender was wrong.
Poots had been the first DUP minister to attend a GAA match officially. He was among a packed crowd at Pairc Esler for a McKenna Cup tie between Donegal and Down in January 2008 — 10 years before Foster went to Clones for the Ulster final.
No bogeyman
In 2017, he had told the MacGill summer school in Glenties, Co Donegal: “Anyone who speaks and loves the Irish language is as much a part of Northern Ireland life as a collarette-wearing Orangeman.
“I want them to feel at home, to feel respected, and a part of society.” Poots was by no means the bogeyman that some portrayed him.
Yet he took up the leadership with low public buy-in. In a LucidTalk poll, two-thirds of DUP voters said they preferred Donaldson. That meant he had to hit the ground running, which he failed to do. He may have plotted a successful path to secure the top job, but he failed to articulate a vision for unionism. With no apparent policy change on the protocol, it increasingly looked — as TUV leader Jim Allister said — like a pure power grab.
It was a deal with Sinn Féin and the British Government over the Irish language which proved Poots' undoing. His decision to press ahead with the nomination of Paul Givan as First Minister in defiance of the overwhelming majority of MLAs and MPs was the final straw.
He had won the leadership on a pledge to put 'democracy' back into the DUP and give his elected representatives a greater say. With greater patience and tactical guile, he could have plotted a way through.
Hours after that nomination in the Assembly, Poots was forced to resign and the way was cleared for Donaldson to assume the top job.
It was a very public humiliation. Paisley had lasted almost four decades as leader. Peter Robinson held the reins for seven years and Foster for five, while Poots lasted 21 days. He had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. To say he was a footnote in the history of DUP leaders seemed like an over-exaggeration.
He looked more like a typo. It must have hurt badly. He didn't indulge in public self-pity: there would have been scant sympathy if he had.
Yet the final script was far from written. Poots may have massively mishandled the leadership, but he now played a clever game and proved himself a canny strategist.
Three years later, Donaldson needed his support to get his deal to restore power-sharing across the line. With party officers split down the middle, Poots was the king-maker.
When the Assembly returned, he became Speaker. Just weeks later, Donaldson resigned after being charged with historical sex offences. which he denies. The Poots camp was far from finished in the DUP. Givan is the party's most high-profile and combative minister. Jonny Buckley is its rising star and the most popular MLA with the grassroots.
Paul Frew is chair of the Assembly's justice committee and beat Communities Minister Gordon Lyons for the role of party secretary at last year's AGM. The changing fortunes of those who did battle in the DUP is a story about life as much as it is about politics. It shows how quickly things move: how winners can become losers overnight, and vice versa.
Even those role reversals aren't permanent. The wheel turns, and it changes all over again.
Sinn Féin is in a corner – here’s how to get out
PATRICK MURPHY, Irish News, May 2nd, 2026
SINN Féin have finally accepted what the rest of us have known for years – Stormont is not working.
The problem has arisen because, they say, the British government does not adequately fund Stormont (which is not quite true) and the DUP is obstructive in most of what it does (which is generally true).
However, Sinn Féin’s current difficulties with a failed Stormont are largely of their own making.
They are the result of the party’s poor decision-making, as evidenced by its planned “reform” of Stormont.
That will presumably mean re-writing at least part of Strand One of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), which SF previously said cannot be altered.
So, after 30 years of supporting war and nearly another 30 years preaching peace, how did Sinn Féin manage to paint themselves into a corner in Stormont – and what can they do to get out of it?
The party’s problems stem from the GFA, which promised a solution to what had effectively been a sectarian war.
The obvious way forward was to develop a common ground on social and economic issues (the matters now being neglected by Stormont) to help foster a non-sectarian political culture.
Constitutional issues could have been reserved for a Stormont committee.
Institutionalising the problem
Instead, the GFA claimed that the way to resolve sectarianism was to institutionalise it and make it respectable – a bit like the argument for legalising drugs.
Stormont’s failure has now exposed that fallacy.
Sectarian war was to be replaced with sectarian peace, but a war-weary public settled for peace at any price.
We are paying that price today in the form of crumbling school buildings, health waiting lists and collapsing infrastructure.
We entered the Troubles in 1969 as a welfare state and emerged in 1998 under Thatcherism. No party asked which we wanted, so the Agreement gave us Thatcherism.
Then the parties wrapped themselves in flags, called it a peace process and praised themselves for their achievement.
Sinn Féin decided they would represent only Catholics at the talks, thereby contradicting Michelle O’Neill’s claim last week that the party was a direct descendant of the United Irishmen of 1798.
Today, supporters complain that it is not delivering for “its” people – not a party for everyone, just its own people.
This hardly reflects the principles of Presbyterian United Irishmen such as Jemmy Hope and Henry Joy McCracken.
Sinn Féin’s proposal to reform Stormont will presumably come under Section 12, Annex A in the St Andrews Agreement, which allows for the appointment of a standing Institutional Review Committee.
However, matters to be reviewed “would be agreed among the parties”. It is unlikely that the DUP will buy into that process.
So how do Sinn Féin step away from the corner into which they have painted themselves?
If the party walks away from Stormont, it will effectively be walking away from the GFA, which it claims as a great victory, even though it recognises the legitimacy of partition.
It would also damage its claim in the south that it can be a government party in the north.
Sinn Féin cannot work within Stormont and cannot walk away from it.
So it might consider working around it to develop what might be described as an alternative Stormont to offset at least some of the assembly’s failings.
It would also fill the political vacuum created by failed politics rather than allow it to be occupied by violence against the PSNI.
SDLP’s alternative model
A model for by-passing Stormont already exists, funded by the public and businesses.
Former SDLP councillor Paul Doherty’s Woodstock food bank now goes beyond feeding the hungry.
Rather than preach about workers and families, his system directly helps them.
Every year it distributes 38,000 meals, 600 cooked Christmas dinners, 110,000 healthy school breakfasts, school uniforms to 1,500 children, and Christmas presents to 2,000 children. It has now branched out into providing education.
Imagine what Sinn Féin could do with their financial and human resources and organisational experience on a six-county scale – and imagine the impact of that work on a non-sectarian basis.
It would be in marked contrast to sectarian mud-wrestling with the DUP over statues and flags.
It would not solve health waiting lists or growing homelessness, but it would neutralise some of the DUP’s intransigence and change Stormont’s ethos from the GFA’s politician-centred process to people-centred politics.
It would also be in the tradition of Jemmy Hope and Henry Joy McCracken. Of course, it will not happen. So let’s see how long Sinn Féin is prepared to stand in the corner waiting for the paint to dry.
Like everything else - potholes are becoming more expensive!
CONOR COYLE, Irish News, May 2nd, 2026
INFRASTRUCTURE Minister Liz Kimmins has been criticised after issuing a press release hailing the repair of 10,000 potholes in eight weeks, despite official figures suggesting fewer road defects are being dealt with than previous years.
The Department for Infrastructure released the statement on Thursday which followed on from it being given £7.85 million in February for a Winter Road Recovery Fund to address widespread road defects across the country.
The release said that following the announcement of additional funding, “crews have been out working hard to repair potholes and other road defects and now the figures speak for themselves, with 10,000 repairs completed in eight weeks”.
The statement also went on to blame the condition of the roads network on “years of underfunding by the British government”.
However, official figures on road defects from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) suggest that the pace of pothole repairs may be slower than previous years.
If 10,000 potholes were repaired by the department every eight weeks over the course of a full year, the total number of defects fixed would be 65,000.
The NISRA figures, provided by Ms Kimmins’ own department as context to the number of potholes repaired, show that last year there were 81,843 potholes repaired across the north.
300 fewer repairs a week
That figure has dropped considerably compared with five years previous, when in 2019/20 more than 97,000 potholes were fixed.
At its current rate, the Department for Infrastructure would need to repair 300 more potholes per week than it is currently fixing in order to reach the same number as last year, despite the nearly £8million in additional money provided to tackle the issue.
DUP MLA Peter Martin, the chair of Stormont’s Infrastructure Committee, says the figures reflect the worsening state of roads and accused the minister of “glossing over” the problem.
“Our Roads Service and local teams are trying their absolute best but the infrastructure minister is not resourcing them properly and not managing the largest budget she has ever received, effectively and efficiently,” he said.
“Rather than patting herself on the back the minister should be explaining why she appears to be celebrating a plan to deal with thousands fewer potholes than in previous years.
“Essentially the minister is saying if we keep going at this incredible pace we will fix 15,000 less pot holes than last year.
“Repairs are only temporary in nature, and many only end up reopening. It’s simply unacceptable given the level of road disrepair the people we represent can see with their own eyes.”
When the figures suggesting potholes were being fixed at a slower rate than previous years were put to DfI, a spokesperson for the department did not address the point directly but said the repairs were being carried out “at pace”.
In February, Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins rejected as “ludicrous” the claim that she is neglecting pothole repair to “make a constitutional point”
“The damage caused to our roads by prolonged bad weather at the beginning of the year is well documented,” the spokesperson said.
“The additional in-year funding provided by the Minister was a mixture of funding for resurfacing and pothole filling to address that damage in the worst affected areas.
“It allowed the repairs to be carried out at pace and before the end of the financial year.”
SDLP MLAs cleared of breaching Stormont regulations
CONOR COYLE, Irish News, May 2nd, 2026
TWO SDLP MLAs have been cleared of any wrongdoing after being the subject of a complaint over alleged breaches of Stormont confidentiality rules.
Mark H Durkan and Cara Hunter had been investigated by the Assembly’s Standards and Privileges Committee following a complaint by DUP MLA Diane Forsythe.
The complaint alleged they had breached Rule 12 of the Code of Conduct through the publication of a motion in their names which referenced the findings of an inquiry by the Public Accounts Committee, whilst the relevant report was under embargo.
Standards Commissioner Stephen Wright considered the complaint and decided it was admissible, before then commencing an investigation in December.
A report was provided to the Standards and Privileges Committee, who concluded it was not possible to determine, on the balance of probabilities, that a breach of confidentiality or of the report’s embargo requirement was established or, even if a breach was established, who was responsible.
The complaint was therefore not upheld and the committee concluded that the two MLAs had not breached the code.
The report from the commissioner stated that “it appears that the requirements of the Public Accounts Committee Report embargo were not adhered to”, but added that neither had read the report in question or were aware of the embargo.
“In this case therefore it is not possible to conclude to the required standard of proof that either Mr Durkan or Ms Hunter knowingly disclosed confidential or protectively marked information,” the report concluded.
