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A blog from the Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Information Service

Infrastructure Blog Archive

Here you will find an archive of Infrastructure Blog articles published before 1 May 2022, divided into their relevant categories.

Energy

Image of wind farm in front of a setting sun
There was considerable growth in the development of renewable electricity over the previous Northern Ireland Assembly mandate. Changes to renewable electricity support may impact the ability to achieve similar levels…

Infrastructure

An image showing Silent Valley (left) and Ben Crom (right) reservoirs, Mourne Mountains, County Down
Reservoir safety is changing in order to better protect people in Northern Ireland. This article gives an overview of a recent Research and Information Service paper about the Reservoirs…
An image showing the Port of Larne
Transport links between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom (UK) have entered the spotlight in recent months. The realities of the UK leaving the European Union…
When the UK Government became the world’s first major economy to legislate for a ‘net zero’ target for carbon emissions by 2050, it acknowledged it would not succeed unless…

Transport

A photograph showing a flood under a railway bridge flood in Holywood
The condition and quality of transport infrastructure is critical to the economic and social wellbeing of Northern Ireland (NI). There can be huge costs where transport infrastructure fails or…
An image of the centre of Belfast with buses whizzing past COVID-19 signs
In March 2020, the lockdown imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a collapse in the use of all modes of transportation in Northern Ireland (NI). At the…
An image showing a street charger in Belfast
The UK Government has a vision where almost all cars and vans on UK roads will be electric by 2050. Encouragingly, the market for electric cars is growing year-on-year,…

Water

An image showing Silent Valley (left) and Ben Crom (right) reservoirs, Mourne Mountains, County Down
Reservoir safety is changing in order to better protect people in Northern Ireland. This article gives an overview of a recent Research and Information Service paper about the Reservoirs…
Strangford Lough from Scrabo Hill (Image: Colin Park under Creative Commons)
As the Prime Minister prepares to trigger Article 50, this blog post looks at the potential consequences for environmental standards here in Northern Ireland….
Rathlin Island, one of 57 SACs in Northern Ireland (Image: Colin Park under Creative Commons Licence)
How might leaving the European Union impact on environmental policy, funding and legislation in Northern Ireland?…