Debate contribution: Scarva Protest
Debate contribution by Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly on .
- MLA
- Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 8 June 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Scarva Protest
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5600524
Read the official Assembly record
Text
It is shameful that you stand in this place and spin a narrative on the basis of a handful of photographs when people are telling you what happened on the ground. The protest was happening. The situation was volatile. Elected representatives from the DUP, the Ulster Unionist Party and the TUV were on the ground, including Carla Lockhart, Diane Forsythe and Jonathan Buckley. They were there to de-escalate the situation. That is why I asked you to listen to the Member's statement. The photographs that you are referring to show Carla Lockhart standing, not on her own but with a line of public representatives, holding the line, calming things down, so it is very easy for you to criticise. Shame on you to use that volatile situation to politically point-score when elected representatives from the DUP were there, on the ground, trying to ensure that the protest remained peaceful. The DUP has always been more than clear: we stand against thuggery, we stand against paramilitarism, we stand against terrorism and we stand for the rule of law. It was not easy for the public representatives to be there in very difficult circumstances, but violence was avoided, and I say well done to those who worked hard to ensure that that was the outcome.
213 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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