A JUDGE has accused two Stormont departments of being “entirely unfair and unacceptable”, “unprincipled” and of “gaslighting” in their appeal to build the A5.

This indicates that the appeal, led by Sinn Féin minister Liz Kimmins, will fail and her party will go into next year’s assembly election with no progress on a key promise to its voters.

Unlike Casement Park, Sinn Féin cannot even pretend this is the DUP’s fault.

Although the Climate Change Act that has stalled the A5 is DUP legislation, that is due to a complex cross-party compromise – the DUP watered down the original proposals.

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Since the A5 was quashed last year, all three main unionist parties have offered to support changing the Act’s interim greenhouse gas emissions targets to allow work to commence, just as Scotland did two years ago to build a dual-carriageway from Perth to Inverness.

The Act’s 2030 target of a 48% reduction is in any case impossible and no major infrastructure project can proceed until it is changed.

When the DUP’s Phillip Brett asked Michelle O’Neill about this at a Stormont committee last month, the first minister’s only response was to call him a “climate denier”.

There is certainly denial at work here, but not by the DUP.

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THE top civil servant at the Department for the Economy has said the planned expansion of student numbers in Derry cannot be completed without raising tuition fees or cutting £40 million a year elsewhere.

Permanent secretary Ian Snowden made his remarks at a Stormont committee.

Caoimhe Archibald, the Sinn Féin economy minister, responded with a public statement that she is fully committed to the expansion and there will be no increase in fees, beyond the level of inflation.

Sinn Féin opposes raising Northern Ireland’s lower, subsidised fees because it says this would deter low-income applicants and burden graduates with debt.

Yet last week, Dr........

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