{"id":368716,"date":"2025-08-24T02:39:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T02:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/368716\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T02:39:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T02:39:13","slug":"number-of-dfi-officials-meetings-with-daera-counterparts-over-a5-almost-double-that-previously-reported-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/368716\/","title":{"rendered":"Number of DfI officials\u2019 meetings with Daera counterparts over A5 almost double that previously reported \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Muir<\/a> has revealed that his officials met their Department for Infrastructure (DfI) counterparts on almost double the number of occasions previously believed to discuss the potential impact of climate legislation on the stalled plan to build the A5<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In July, The Irish News revealed that DfI consulted with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) on seven occasions<\/a> to assist the former \u201cin the preparation of their response to the climate related recommendations made by the Planning Appeals Commission (PAC)\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Muir has now confirmed in fresh correspondence to SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone that there were a total of 13 meetings, stretching as far back as August 2022.<\/p>\n

The revelation heaps further embarrassment on DfI, which previously confirmed only that there was \u201cregular engagement\u201d with Daera.<\/p>\n

\"10,000<\/a>\"Brother<\/a>\"InfrastructureInfrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins is appealing the High Court’s ruling. PICTURE: LIAM MCBURNEY\/PA (Liam McBurney\/PA) <\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins announced that she would be appealing June\u2019s High Court ruling<\/a> in which Justice McAlinden said the \u00a31.7bn project could not proceed as planned because it failed to comply with Stormont\u2019s climate change targets.<\/p>\n

More than 50 people have died since an upgrade of the 58-mile stretch of road between Aughnacloy in Co Tyrone and Newbuildings in Co Derry was first scheduled to begin. However, a series of successful court challenges have led the work to be delayed for almost 20 years.<\/p>\n

Close to 2,000 acres of land along the proposed road\u2019s route that was vested since last November is to be returned to landowners in the aftermath of the court\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

Mr McGlone\u2019s party colleague, West Tyrone representative Daniel McCrossan, said the latest revelation \u201craises further questions about the competency of this department and their approach to the A5\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe previous Sinn F\u00e9in infrastructure minister oversaw this shambles and now the current Sinn F\u00e9in minister must answer for it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a key public infrastructure project costing hundreds of millions, more importantly people\u2019s lives are at stake. How can we have confidence the minister and her department can deliver the A5 given the 13 meetings with Daera and still a failure to take environmental legislation into account?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Infrastructure has been asked to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Muir has revealed that his officials met their Department for Infrastructure (DfI) counterparts on almost double the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[92994,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-368716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-a5","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115081430114456924","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}