By Callum McGuigan
THE INFRASTRUCTURE Minister has announced a further £1.5m for road safety programmes while on a school visit in Fermanagh.
Minister Liz Kimmins was welcomed to Erne Integrated College last week to talk with students about road safety.
The Minister said, “Too many families, friends and communities are devastated by serious and fatal road traffic collisions and I am acutely aware that children and young people are amongst the most vulnerable groups using our roads.
“I have reinstated the road safety advertising budget, approving an allocation of £1,946,000 for the 2025/26 financial year, an increase of over £1.5m.”
Minister Kimmins said the funds had helped reinstate a road safety advertising programme and would help take forward a third tranche of 20mph zones at schools,
Local youth politician, Jack McCubbin, who is also a student at Erne Integrated, highlighted to the Minister the underfunding for road safety in Fermanagh.
“After writing to the Minister I got a great response from her, and she stated she would like to come down to my school to meet me and discuss the issues I raised in the email,” he said.
“With help from a local DfI representative and local SDLP councillor Adam Gannon, I was able to ask carefully planned out questions to target key areas of interest, from the new graduated driving license, to the possibility of a new set of traffic lights outside the newly built Lakelands Retail Park.
“I made sure to raise the fact that Fermanagh was severely underfunded, its clear the DfI is trying to share out a small pot of money that isn’t even worth much.
“It’s issues like this that need to be resolved, due to funding restraints areas which are in dire need for works.”
