Written question AQW 35310/22-27
Written question by Mr Phillip Brett on .
- MLA
- Mr Phillip Brett
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 12 November 2025
- Type
- Written question
- Assembly reference
- AQW 35310/22-27
- Department
- Department for the Economy
- Business
- To the Minister for the Economy
- Assembly identifier
- Document 458701
Read the official Assembly record Open Data source
Text
To ask the Minister for the Economy whether (i) her Department carried out an Equality Impact Assessment, under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, on its 2024-25 Business Plan, (ii) an Equality Impact Assessment was specifically carried out at any time, into her decision to develop a departmental Irish language policy; and (iii) her decision to develop an Irish language policy, without an equivalent for Ulster Scots, was identified at any point as an equality issue.
78 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: 0.39 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- Criteria met: Cultural grievance politics (0.75).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.60).
- The text reports, quotes or asks about the framing rather than adopting it (0.48).
- Subject area: Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy.
- The overall probability was low and the text did not adopt any identity-based framing.
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 | 0.26 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.75 | Yes |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.20 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.36 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.60 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.39 | Between thresholds |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing | 0.43 |
| Reports or questions it (chosen) | 0.48 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.09 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 1.00 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 05:04 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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