Debate contribution: Display of Flags and Emblems Bill: Second Stage
Debate contribution by Ms Kellie Armstrong on .
- MLA
- Ms Kellie Armstrong
- Party at the time
- Alliance 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 5739841
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for giving way. I am a bit confused, because the Bill does not stop anyone from having a celebration. It allows people to apply to put flags up for a time and to get agreement on when to take them down again. I am concerned, because there seems to be a belief that only one community will be affected. I come from a mixture of lots of parts of our communities, and, believe me, a lot of people say, "We want to have respect for flags. We do not want them to be tattered and torn. We would really appreciate knowing when flags will go up, when they will come down and who will take them down". The Department for Infrastructure would not be under pressure to remove those flags if the groups, which you say have good community relations, used a formal process to make an application to put flags up and if they took them down again. I am sick to the back teeth of being the one to say, as I regularly do, "Stop complaining to me about flags that you do not like. Take it to the DUP or the Ulster Unionists, the parties of the other MLAs in the area, because you do not talk to them".
They do not talk to you about that, because they come to me to ask about flags and raise their concerns. They ask me about their concerns. When I send them next door to Mike Nesbitt or up the street to Jim Shannon, they go, but they feel as if they are being ignored. Where are the good community relations? There should be somewhere where those people can go to check, "Are these legitimate flags? Do these people want them up for a celebration? I can see that, and I understand when they are coming back down". I think that it would help the wider community and improve community relations.
There are more than two communities.
332 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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