Member's statement: Flags on Street Furniture

Member's statement by Mr Eóin Tennyson on 22 June 2026.

MLA: Mr Eóin Tennyson
Party at the time: Alliance Party
Date: 22 June 2026
Type: Member's statement
Business: Members' Statements
Heading: Flags on Street Furniture
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5637685

Text

One of the perennial failures of the Assembly has been our inability to grapple with the issue of flags displayed on street furniture. In the past week alone, I have seen paramilitary flags erected outside a school in Banbridge, while residents of Drumnagoon, which is a mixed and shared community of new developments in Craigavon, have woken up to find their neighbourhood festooned with flags, against the wishes of local residents. I respect and acknowledge everyone's right to express their identity and their culture, but surely we can all agree that displaying criminal gangs' flags in our community is not culture, nor is masked men — nameless individuals — erecting flags overnight for an unspecified period with no consultation with local residents.
The response from statutory agencies is consistently inadequate. Despite it being an offence under article 87 of the Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993, we see no enforcement action whatever from the Department for Infrastructure. I call on the Infrastructure Minister to set out what she will do to start to tackle the issue. It is also the case that we spent £800,000 on the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition (FICT) report, which set out a way forward to deal with the issues, but, of course, that report languishes on the desks of the First Minister and the deputy First Minister, with no action forthcoming. Year in, year out, every MLA gets reports from families who feel intimidated when a flag goes up outside their house. Every year, we get complaints about the divisions that are stoked and the fear that is created in communities. It is long past time that all parties in the Chamber showed the leadership that is required and put in place a system of enforcement for when flags are flown on street furniture.

301 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.

Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.15 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.84).
The text criticises or condemns the framing or division (0.95).
Subject area: Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials.
The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.

This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.

Jev’s structured answers

Probability that each statement is true of this text (0 = no, 1 = yes). A criterion counts as met at 0.60 or above.
Question	Probability	Met?
Identity framing	0.12	No
Sectarian or communal antagonism	0.08	No
Cultural grievance politics	0.12	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.38	No
Controversy escalation	0.15	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.84	Yes
Overall judgement	0.15	At or below not-flagging threshold

Context and attribution (stance)
Option	Probability
No identity-based framing	0.03
Reports or questions it	0.00
Criticises or condemns it (chosen)	0.95
Adopts it	0.02

Subject area (top five)
Subject	Probability
Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials	0.96
Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations	0.03
Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism	0.01
No identity-related subject	0.00
Parades, bonfires and commemorations	0.00

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:05 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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