Debate contribution: Display of Flags and Emblems Bill: Second Stage
Debate contribution by Mr David Brooks on .
- MLA
- Mr David Brooks
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 14 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Display of Flags and Emblems Bill: Second Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5686547
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The Member is absolutely right: not much thought has been given to that at all, or, if it has, it has been dismissed on the basis that the Alliance Party will at least have something to hold up to its electorate and say, "Look, we did something. It doesn't matter that it's not sustainable. It doesn't matter that it can't be enforced. We did something. We made a valiant attempt and failed". The Member is absolutely right on that point. Maybe the Minister will be able to speak to that more when she eventually gets to speak. Maybe there has been some discussion on that, and maybe some research has been done. I suspect that it will number in the millions. It is for the Bill's sponsor to tell the House how much she is willing to spend to try to play cat and mouse around the country when it comes to flags. I do not intend to go on too much longer, as a lot of my points have been made. However, it is relevant to talk about what the sponsor thinks the threshold should be within a community for a decision to be made for a flag to come down, because her party members at Belfast City Hall were enablers of the 15% threshold and the chaos that ensued from that. Communities in streets in my constituency see the Irish language signs that are imposed on them as being very much along the same lines as someone putting flags that they disagree with along their street, yet the Alliance Party supported and enabled those signs. They enabled the SDLP and Sinn Féin to bring that about. Will we be talking about a similar threshold in relation to this Bill? Will a single person raising the fact that they find it offensive be enough to insist that flags come down, such as the flags around the route of the 1 July parade that, as I outlined, her party colleague raised. The sponsor may not like that equivalence — I can see her stern face in that regard — but she is arguing that perceptions, feelings and offence matter. My constituents see that as being a cultural imposition and will want to be treated fairly in all of this as well.
381 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Awaiting analysis
This record has not been analysed yet. It is not counted in any total until it has been assessed.
Disagree with this assessment?
Classifications can be challenged. A person reviews every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.