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

Debate contribution by Mr Paul Frew on 22 September 2026.

MLA

Mr Paul Frew

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

22 September 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Display of Flags and Emblems Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5739331

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Bill sponsor for her intervention. Again, I welcome it; I missed it when we spoke previously on this motion. I went to great lengths to say what I said, because the Bill puts a burden on the Department and states:

"The Department must remove a flag or emblem that is attached to public street furniture",

so individuals would be put at risk. A departmental official, engineer or contractor may well be trained in health and safety, but a contractor is not trained in defence, security or the threat of terrorism. Does the Bill sponsor not realise that we still live under a threat of terrorists? It may well be diminished, and those terrorist organisations may well be diminished, but they still have the potential to murder our personnel, be they a government official from the Department, a contractor working for a Department or a member of the police and security forces. My father, who drove a lorry, was deemed to be a target because he happened to draw stones in and out of a military camp or building site that happened to be a police station. That threat is real. I bring it up because you place a burden on the Department for Infrastructure. It:

"must remove a flag or emblem that is attached to public street furniture."

I have no doubt, and it is not far-fetched to say, that a terrorist outfit would use that as a new front to attack and put in jeopardy the lives of members of the security forces, and, for that matter, the life of even a government official. They did that in the past. They killed census workers who were going from door to door, so never underestimate the potential terrorist threat in this country.

The Bill sponsor's middle-class thoughts on this really betray her stance because she is not deep down into the ground. She is not working with communities; if she were, she would see that the Bill is unachievable. Its objectives and aims are unachievable because it does not include the community in the decisions and preparations to try to remove flags. There are many on these Benches — on both sides of the House, I am sure — who work with communities, even, at times, with people who we do not want to work with on a daily basis, and we try as best we can to remove the flags in the areas where we can. We also know —

I will in a wee minute, once I advance my argument. We also know that when that goes wrong at community level, if a flag comes down, 100 may well go up in its place, so there is a real potential that that may spin out of control because of the Bill. I will give way to the Member.

I will in a wee minute. The Bill sponsor puts my argument for me, in that this legislation will be just as worthless as aspects of other pieces of legislation. When we go to the community and ask whether it would be possible for flags to be removed, even for a period of time, or even replaced because they are tattered, we do not necessarily know who put them up. In some instances, we do know, but, in those instances, it is usually the police who come to us to ask us to influence the people who put them up. That shows that current law in this area is not fit for purpose, and this legislation will go just the same way.

Sorry, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. I should always be addressing you. I know that.

Forgive me, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. I am just passionate about this subject, and I lapse at times.

I will give way.

I thank the Member for his intervention. He is absolutely right because he works in North Antrim, as I do, and he sees the difficulties when it comes to flags and emblems. I note that the Bill sponsor was wanting the intervener to give an intervention, but I will certainly give the intervention.

I thank the Bill sponsor for her intervention, but, if it was such a good idea for the Department to take down flags and emblems from street furniture that it owned, it would do it. DFI would already be doing it if it helped the community and did not cause a chasm between the Department for Infrastructure street lighting division, let us say, and the community — the people who live in the houses. That is my point: this will cause a chasm. It will mean that DFI Roads officials, whom we deal with daily and weekly, could well become the target of threats from the community.

I will in a wee minute. That is not acceptable and should not be the case, but some of us, especially those with the threat of terrorism hanging over us, live in the real world.

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

Assessment

Uncertain: close call Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:26 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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