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An Important Meeting This Friday — Chris Hazzard MP

This Friday, 13 March 2026, the campaign will meet with Chris Hazzard MP, Member of Parliament for South Down, to present the case for an independent feasibility study into the Strangford Lough Crossing. We are grateful to Chris for agreeing to give us his time and for engaging seriously with the evidence we have gathered. A briefing paper has been issued.

This will be a purposeful and focused meeting. We are not going to ask for a commitment to a bridge. We are asking for something far more straightforward: that the question be properly examined, for the first time, using the standard evidence-based process that applies to every other major transport proposal in Northern Ireland.

Why Chris Hazzard?

Chris Hazzard is the Sinn Féin MP for South Down. Minister Liz Kimmins MLA, who has responsibility for infrastructure, is his Sinn Féin party colleague. That relationship matters. When a Minister says — as Minister Kimmins did in the Assembly on 3 February 2026 — “why not? I am happy to keep that under review,” the question becomes how that openness is translated into action within her Department. A direct conversation between MP and Minister, within the same party, is one of the most direct routes available. Chris also represents communities on the western shore of Strangford Lough, and his constituency adjoins the area most directly affected by the absence of a permanent crossing.

We want to be clear: this campaign has support from right across the political spectrum. Jim Shannon MP (DUP), the long-serving MP for the Strangford constituency, has expressed his personal support for the scheme and confirmed he would welcome funding from any external source, including potential Irish Government investment, if it helped his constituents. That is a remarkable thing — a DUP MP and a Sinn Féin MP, united behind the same community infrastructure ask. It says everything about the character of this project.

What We Will Be Asking For

We will be bringing four specific and practical requests to the meeting.

First, we will ask Chris to raise the Strangford Lough Crossing directly with Minister Kimmins and to encourage her to translate her Assembly statement into a formal direction to her Department to commission an independent feasibility study. This study would be conducted using TAG — Transport Appraisal Guidance — the same structured, evidence-based framework the Department uses for every other infrastructure proposal. It is not a commitment to a bridge. It is a commitment to gathering the evidence that any responsible decision must rest upon.

Second, we will ask Chris to table or support a Parliamentary or Assembly Question asking the Minister to clarify whether her 3 February 2026 Assembly statement represents a change in direction to her Department. A formal question creates a formal answer on the public record — and prevents a positive Ministerial signal from being quietly absorbed back into the Department’s standing position of refusal.

Third, we will ask for his support in encouraging Newry, Mourne and Down District Council to pass a formal resolution backing an independent feasibility study. Ards and North Down Borough Council is already on record in support. A crossing between Strangford and Portaferry touches both council areas. Both councils need to be formally on record for the full case to be made within the Department’s own transport planning process.

Fourth, we will ask that the Strangford Lough Crossing be identified in the Regional Transport Plan 2035 — the Department’s own strategic transport plan — as a scheme requiring further assessment. At present, the crossing is classified as a local transport matter rather than a strategic infrastructure issue. That administrative classification — not any objective assessment of the crossing’s merit — is one of the key reasons the Department has been able to avoid properly examining it. Reclassifying it as a strategic scheme would unlock the right funding and appraisal pathways and create the formal planning context the campaign needs.

The Shared Island Opportunity

We will also be raising a specific and practical funding option that the Department has not, to our knowledge, pursued. The Irish Government’s Shared Island Initiative has a fund of €2 billion committed through to 2035 for all-island infrastructure and connectivity projects. The Irish Government has already indicated — in correspondence with the campaign (reference DOT-TM25-11858-2025) — that it is open to cooperation on projects of this kind, provided the Northern Ireland Executive takes the lead.

We will put it to Chris that DfI could approach its counterpart, the Irish Government Department of Transport, to explore whether the cost of a feasibility study could be met, in whole or in part, through the Shared Island Initiative. If the Irish Government is willing to co-fund the study, the cost to the Northern Ireland public purse could be reduced significantly or even eliminated entirely. The Department’s stated objection to a feasibility study is that it would not represent good value for public money. The Shared Island Fund is a direct and practical answer to that objection.

What Happens Next

We will follow up with Chris’s office after the meeting. The campaign will continue to press for a formal Ministerial direction to DfI, for inclusion in the Regional Transport Plan 2035, and for the Shared Island co-funding conversation to be initiated at departmental level. We will report back to supporters once the meeting has taken place.

We are also continuing to build the council-level evidence base, and we would encourage anyone with connections to Newry, Mourne and Down District Council to raise the issue with their local councillors and ask for the Council to pass a formal resolution of support.

This campaign has always operated on facts, patience and persistence. Friday 13 March 2026 is another step forward. We will keep you informed as developments unfold.