Department of
Regional Development
The Department for Regional Development (DRD) is one of eleven Northern Ireland Departments that were created in 1999.
The Department has approximately 4,960 staff employed in Roads Service, Water Service and seven other divisions.
The Department’s main responsibilities are; Strategic Planning, Transportation Strategy, Ports and Public Transport, Roads and Water Policy, Providing and Maintaining Roads and Providing and Maintaining Water and Sewerage Services.
Water and Sewerage
During the period of Direct Rule, Northern Ireland has suffered severely from under-investment in many services particularly water and sewerage.
The Government has begun a major programme of capital investment in these services which amounts to £3 billion over the next 20 years.
The difficulty is that the Government expects consumers to pay for this investment by way of water charges and until recently has ignored the fact that consumers have already paid for the service through the Regional Rate.
If the Government presses ahead with the introduction of water charges those changes must be fair for each and every customer. Currently this is not the case.
This issue is one of the major problems facing us and a solution must be found which produces an enhanced water and sewerage service at an exceptional cost to the consumer with protection for the vulnerable in our society.
