To ask the Minister for Infrastructure whether she intends to bring formal proposals for an infrastructure commission to the Executive.

I received the final report of the Ministerial Advisory Panel on Infrastructure on 2 October 2020. The report is clear in its recommendation that an Infrastructure Commission should be established in Northern Ireland.

I subsequently shared the report with Executive colleagues, the Infrastructure Committee and the Speaker with a view to undertaking a period of engagement in respect of the Panel’s recommendations.

I have already met Ministers Murphy and Poots in respect of the Panel’s work and am looking forward to meeting my other Ministerial colleagues in coming weeks. The Chair of the Panel also met the Committee on 11 November 2020.

I acknowledge that the report and its recommendations go beyond the remit of my own Department and recognise the importance of this period of engagement in ensuring that any proposal I bring before the Executive will enable us to consider how we might best move forward to support the long-term planning and delivery of infrastructure, a critical component in the Executive’s Brexit planning and Covid recovery.