Member's statement: Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs:Motion of No Confidence
Member's statement by Mr Paul Frew on .
- MLA
- Mr Paul Frew
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 21 September 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs:Motion of No Confidence
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5741791
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Every weekend, we seem to hear about an Alliance Party disaster or catastrophe, but I ask Members to cast their mind back to when 51 cattle were slaughtered in an open field in full view of the public on the watch of the Alliance Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Andrew Muir. I am glad to report that the DUP tabled a motion of no confidence in the Minister at the behest of the farming community across the country, because of the weight of its concern. I am glad that the TUV signed the motion of no confidence and that the UUP has now signed it. I thank both parties for doing so. There are many farmers in North Antrim who vote for Sinn Féin, but it has yet to sign the motion of no confidence. Sinn Féin may be energised only about unionist Ministers, but surely its voters who are farmers in North Antrim and throughout the Province have been on to Sinn Féin constituency offices, concerned about how the cull could have happened on the Alliance Minister's watch. I appeal to my colleague in North Antrim the Sinn Féin MLA Philip McGuigan and his party to sign the motion of no confidence without delay. Let us send the message that the farming community of Northern Ireland has delivered loud and clear: the Minister must go.
228 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
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: 0.40 (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).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.63).
- The overall probability was moderate at most and none of the culture-war criteria was close to being met.
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
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.25 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.18 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.37 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.22 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.51 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.40 | Between thresholds |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.63 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.01 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.36 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.34 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.31 |
| Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty | 0.28 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.06 |
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.01 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:23 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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