Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd may be a minister in a mere regional government, as opposed to a national government, but it is still absurd that he is responsible for every inch of road and pavement in Northern Ireland.

Welsh transport secretary Ken Skates only has to look after his region’s strategic road network: 75 miles of motorway and 1,000 miles of major trunk roads. The remaining 95 per cent of roads in Wales are the responsibility of councils.

The same system operates in Scotland, England and the Republic. Most of the world entrusts local roads to local authorities and would consider it bizarre to do otherwise.

Yet at Stormont, the Department for Infrastructure has sole responsibility for everything – all 16,000 miles of road and 6,000 miles of pavement, urban and rural, major and minor, including signs, street lights and verges, while also looking after public transport, water, rivers, ports and planning.

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As a result, Mr O’Dowd and his officials must devise strategic transport policy and projects while also dealing with a vast number of petty distractions. It is their job and theirs alone to fill in every pothole, trim every hedge and re-paint every road marking, everywhere.

In the past week, the department........

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