To ask the Minister for Infrastructure whether any work has been undertaken to develop a function within the online reporting portal, that would allow users to receive email updates on the progress of faults they have reported.

My department receives approximately 90,000 road faults and 60,000 lighting faults annually. The system for reporting such faults was first introduced by the Department in 2015, and is now available for members of the public to report instances directly using this online system Report a pothole or other surface defect | nidirect or via the NI Direct contact centre.

When a fault is reported, an automated acknowledgement email is issued which provides an indication of the priority of the fault and a webpage link and reference number to facilitate tracking.

The reference number can be used to track updates to the fault report via the dedicated NI Direct webpage Track progress of a reported road fault or issue | nidirect which will provide details of any investigation and where possible an indication of the timescale for repair.