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Ms Paula Bradshaw: Assembly records
All of Ms Paula Bradshaw’s imported questions, contributions and motions in this mandate, newest first, including those assessed as not qualifying, uncertain or not yet analysed.
First, you say that I am creating those scenarios. I picked them out of the code of practice from the FICT report that all five parties were involved in, so I have not started prescribing new areas. The church scenario is a really good one. That is a sensitive place. I have included in that clause that the views of…
So that would be deemed a sensitive place. On new housing developments, you say that you need dialogue, but, if nobody has moved into the houses, whom will you have dialogue with? Clearly, it will be people from another area. On interface areas — come on, guys — we should be trying to neutralise those spaces as…
OK. I know that there is academic research on the mapping of it. However, last week, my South Belfast colleague Matthew O'Toole asked about areas such as motorways that are not alongside an established community, for example. You cannot have dialogue with people in such places. I want to pick up a point that keeps…
I thank the Member for giving way: she has been generous with her time today. In my opening remarks, I said that there were great protocols in some areas. A lot of people are responsible with their flags. My Bill is about tackling the areas where there is not good community dialogue and a community does not know who…
He is saying that I am wrong, so let me correct the record. There were 604 requests made over the past four years for advice from the police on what would happen if flags were taken down. Off the back of those requests, no flags came down. There may have been instances of local accommodation, but I am talking about…
On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I received information as part of a freedom of information request. I am happy to lay it in the Library for anybody to see it.
I am saying that the so-called community representatives who threaten and say, "We'll stir up civil disobedience", or whatever term you want to use, have the veto. When, on the advice of the PSNI, the Department decides not to remove flags, it is because unelected people in the shadows have said, "If they come down,…
The people who are putting the flags up, and the people who could, potentially, create community tension if the flags come down. Those are the people whom the Members on your Benches are siding with. I want to see the power taken back from those people so that we can take those offensive, intimidatory flags down and…
It tells me that there are people who have a veto over our communities and that they are the only ones who have any power. It is about time that we, as a civilised democracy, took that power back.
I thank the Member for giving way. As you will recall from my opening remarks, there have been approximately 600 — I think that the figure is 604 — requests for advice from the PSNI over the past four years, and zero flags have come down off the back of those requests.
I thank the Member for giving way. Again, it might be the way in which we have ordered the clauses, but the Bill's starting point is that we want to allow people to have celebrations and commemorations without interference with the erection and affixation of their flags and emblems. They can use the portal. If they…
I thank the Member for giving way. Again, she is making the case for my Bill. We want consistency. It may be that national flags go up that are not inherently intimidating, and that is why I included the provision to determine whether a flag or emblem has been displayed for an excessive period. I did so so that it…
You asked about flags displayed for the purposes of celebration and commemoration. That is made clear in clause 1(4)(e). Moreover, there is the online portal in clause 3, whereby the Department may be notified by people about what they have displayed, their reasons for doing so and their views on the display of the…
We are meant to be discussing the general principles of the Bill. I take on board the Member's point about there being a cross-departmental element involved in community relations — the Department for Communities and the Executive Office have responsibilities, for example — but an amendment could be tabled to have…
As outlined at the start of the Bill, there is the absolute duty under those "intimidatory" categories, and there is then the "presumption". To enact the presumption and work your way through it, there is a process through which departmental officials would have to look at the vicinity, the circumstances and the…