Oral question AQO 1630/22-27
Oral question by Mr Gerry Carroll on .
- MLA
- Mr Gerry Carroll
- Party at the time
- People Before Profit Alliance
- Date
- 20 February 2025
- Type
- Oral question
- Assembly reference
- AQO 1630/22-27
- Department
- The Executive Office
- Business
- To the First Minister and deputy First Minister
- Assembly identifier
- Document 429203
Read the official Assembly record Open Data source
Text
To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister whether the First Minister or her junior Minister discussed any concerns with officials in relation to attending Washington DC on St. Patrick’s Day.
32 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Follow-ups by the same MLA in the Chamber
These were assessed together with this record:
Assessment
Decided as not qualifying on a second assessment, because Jev’s answers did not settle it. The reasons are given below.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.60 (qualifying needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not qualifying).
- Criteria met: Controversy escalation (0.71).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.66).
- The answers did not meet either automatic threshold.
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.
Second assessment
Jev’s answers did not settle this record, so a second model, claude-opus-5-5, read the same text (without the MLA’s name or party) and gave its reasons on 21 October 2026. How the second assessment works
- Verdict
- Not qualifying
- Public interest or divisiveness
- Mainly advances the public interest
Against the published rubric
The tabled question asks whether ministers raised concerns with officials about travelling to Washington on St Patrick's Day, and the follow-up welcomes the decision not to go to the White House and asks why the deputy First Minister is still going. The objection is to ministers engaging with the current US administration, not to St Patrick's Day, Irish culture or any community here. The text frames no contest between communities, targets no group and carries no coded language, so it does not meet the rubric.
Public interest or divisiveness
The activity scrutinises a decision by the Executive's leaders about official engagement with a foreign government, a legitimate subject for Question Time. The follow-up has a campaigning edge, paying tribute to "activists who put pressure" on parties and urging the Taoiseach and Tánaiste not to attend. That pressure concerns foreign policy and political conduct, not identity, and does not set one community against another.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.18 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.03 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.27 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.13 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.71 | Yes |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.28 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.60 | Between thresholds |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.66 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.16 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.01 |
| Adopts it | 0.17 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.48 |
| Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty | 0.16 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.13 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.08 |
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.05 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 08:27 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
Disagree with this assessment?
Classifications can be challenged. A person reviews every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.