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A Newry MLA has demanded urgent action on the region's crumbling roads after new Assembly data confirmed that Newry, Mourne and Down has the second highest number of reported potholes across the North.
The figures, released by Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins in response to an Assembly Question this week from MLA Justin McNulty, show that Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon top the table with 3,977 potholes reported from 2025 to present. Newry, Mourne and Down follows close behind with 2,304 potholes recorded in the same period.
McNulty has wasted little time in pressing the Minister for action. After posting on social media asking constituents to identify dangerous pothole locations, his office was flooded with over 500 comments overnight, pinpointing more than 300 separate locations across Newry and Armagh. He has since written to Minister Kimmins with all 300 locations listed.
Speaking in the Assembly, McNulty was blunt about the scale of the problem: "My office is inundated with calls from constituents who are fed up and furious at the state of our roads. They speak of burst tyres, cracked alloys, broken suspensions, people are paying the price for governmental neglect. They describe roads that resemble the surface of the moon, crater after crater, potholes within potholes, temporary fixes that break up after the first heavy rain or touch of frost."
The Newry MLA was equally direct about who is bearing the cost, highlighting the range of people affected daily. "This issue is one of public safety. It is about the mother driving her children to school, the shift worker commuting before dawn, the farmer transporting livestock, the cyclist navigating traffic. Every one of them deserves roads that are safe and fit for purpose."
McNulty dismissed the response from the Minister's party to date as inadequate and took direct aim at what he described as deflection: "It is farcical for a Republican Infrastructure Minister to deflect blame indefinitely on the British government while our roads continue to crumble beneath us."
He was equally dismissive of any further surveys or technology-based mapping exercises, saying constituents have had enough of promises: "Motorists, cyclists, pedestrians do not want any more excuses from the Minister or her party. They do not want any more photographs or potholes mapped with new technology. They want the Minister to take responsibility and to send someone out with a tin of yellow paint and a pile of tar to fill the potholes."
With over 2,300 potholes reported in the Newry, Mourne and Down area alone a complete fix is unlikely to happen any time soon.
