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 5740318

Text

I thank the Member for giving way. The Bill sponsor completely misses the point about the offences. The point that we made earlier and the point that she was making relates to this issue: when you put your name into the portal and put up Union flags, if, the very next night, UVF flags go up, that will be attributed to you on the portal. It will probably go from the Department to the PSNI, which means that you are labelled as someone who is connected to the UVF. That could have massive effects and impacts on you and your family when it comes to law and order. That is the dangerous point here. It is not an actual offence of instructing the Department to take flags down, breaching the peace or the like; it is the fact that your name is now associated with parliamentary flags because you had to put your name through a portal in order to put up a Union flag.

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

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