Debate contribution: Display of Flags and Emblems Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Jonathan Buckley on 7 September 2026.

MLA

Mr Jonathan Buckley

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

7 September 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Display of Flags and Emblems Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5670743

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Member for her thoughtful intervention, and I do not disagree. Dialogue has to be the way forward, if we are all to be serious about the issue. Imposing the Bill will do nothing to improve community dialogue or community relations when dealing with the issue. A number of Members want to intervene, but I think that there is a move towards having a comfort break, so I will continue and come back if I have time. Dialogue is key, however. The DUP believes that the answer to disputes over flags and emblems should be voluntary action: local agreement and mutual respect backed up by the existing law where there is criminality, intimidation or a threat to public order. We do not need another regulatory regime. We do not need to turn DFI into the flag police. We certainly do not need to give civil servants the power to determine whether a particular expression of culture or identity is sufficiently offensive to warrant removal. We have only to look at another quango championed by the Alliance Party — the Parades Commission — to see how that story ends. Northern Ireland has spent decades learning that attempts to regulate identity through blunt, top-down mechanisms can make tensions worse. We should learn those lessons, not repeat them. The Bill risks doing precisely that. It risks taking matters that are capable of being resolved locally and consensually and dragging them into the formal bureaucratic process. From the evidence of the debate, many more community conversations need to happen. The Bill risks creating more disputes, more complaints and more confrontation. Ironically, it also risks damaging the very community relations that the proposer claims to want to protect. I say this to the proposer: by all means, let us have a serious conversation about how existing responsibilities can be clarified, and let us make sure that the PSNI, councils and Departments know exactly where their relevant responsibilities are, but do not pretend that giving the Department for Infrastructure another mountain of bureaucracy will improve outcomes, given that it cannot get to the bottom of the mountain of potholes already sitting on the roads. Our constituents want safe roads. They want infrastructure that is worth championing. They want potholes repaired, drains emptied, roads marked and painted and our waste water infrastructure funded properly. They do not want already-scarce departmental resources diverted to a subjective cultural policing exercise. Today is my first day as Chair of the Infrastructure Committee. I give this categorical assurance to the Assembly: the people's priorities, which I have outlined, will be my focus as Chair. There will not be endless debates about flags; rather, they will be about infrastructure. The DUP will continue to defend the dignified expression of our national, cultural and religious identity. We will oppose terrorism and paramilitarism, and we will support practical, proportionate action where genuine harm or illegality occurs. We will not support the Bill. Good relations are built on mutual respect, local agreement and common sense, not on giving civil servants a clipboard and asking them to decide which flag they find offensive. I urge Members to oppose the Bill.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:15 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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