Debate contribution: Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers
Debate contribution by Ms Kate Nicholl on .
- MLA
- Ms Kate Nicholl
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 3 August 2022
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Assembly Business
- Heading
- Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4178046
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The Alliance Party will support both nominations for Speaker today, because we need the Assembly up and running urgently. When we talk about the difficulties that people face, it is easy to look at them in abstraction. I wanted to share an account with you that I received from Action for Children that highlights why we need a Speaker and why we need a Speaker today. A family that they support through their young carer's service is living in private rented accommodation. The family face a £230 shortfall each month for their rent, and they have been waiting two and a half years for adapted housing. They rely on support from Action for Children and local churches to get by, but each month they are constantly worried about how they will cover rent and pay for food and fuel costs. Those young carers are 13 and 15 years old. They cook the meals, clean, budget and help their parent get dressed. They are experiencing high levels of anxiety, with one on medication for anxiety and depression. It is a single-parent household where the children help care for their parent, who has physical disabilities and is receiving treatment for cancer. They can no longer manage with all the increases in the household bills, and their benefit entitlements do not match the rise in the cost of living. The lack of certainty about what is ahead hurts families like that in Northern Ireland. Action for Children's crisis support service can only help so far. More food banks are not the solution, and one-off payments are not the solution. What they need is an Assembly. They need political certainty and a functioning Executive ready to work together towards long-term anti-poverty solutions. That is just one example of one family and what they are going through right now, and they are watching. One in four children here lives in poverty. Most of those live in a household with at least one working parent. Those children are watching as they grow up with little hope for the future. Their parents do not have access to affordable, flexible childcare, and, as they struggle, they are watching — women in particular — with the burden of impossible choices. The health service is broken. The sick and their families are watching as they languish on ever-growing waiting lists. Staff are watching as they struggle to cope, under pressure and underpaid. Our climate and nature are in crisis. Our young people are watching as we squander a future generation's birthright. Our society labours under the weight of racism and sectarianism, and those who suffer discrimination are watching as they worry for their welfare every day. What are they watching? They are watching us, an Assembly of elected representatives who were put here to do a job, people who can make a difference to the issues that they face daily. What did they get? They got an Assembly paralysed by the DUP, who are prioritising party over people. I understand that there are issues with the Northern Ireland protocol. I acknowledge that, for some unionists, it represents a real threat to their identity. I do not wish to downplay that. Setting aside the well-rehearsed point that it is the result of Brexit and setting aside the fact that the DUP championed Brexit, the truth remains that any negotiation and any changes to the Northern Ireland protocol can be done only between Westminster and the EU. It does not make any sense. The DUP may claim to be putting pressure on Westminster and the EU, but what they are, in fact, doing is putting pressure on people such as those 13- and 15-year-old carers, the people whom they are meant to represent. The Assembly cannot negotiate changes to the Northern Ireland protocol; what we can do is legislate. We can legislate on community, on childcare and on climate. We stood for election to do a job. We need to be able to get on with the work. We also need to ensure that we are not put in this position ever again. Reform of the structures is now essential not only so that we can break this deadlock but so that no other party can ever put us in this position. If you do not want to do the work of government, do not stop the rest of us from doing so.
731 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not qualifying”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.18 (qualifying needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not qualifying).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.61).
- The text criticises or condemns the framing or division (0.48).
- Subject area: Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-qualifying 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.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.10 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.07 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.03 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.15 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.11 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.61 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.18 | At or below not-qualifying threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing | 0.42 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.06 |
| Criticises or condemns it (chosen) | 0.48 |
| Adopts it | 0.04 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty | 0.51 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.42 |
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.04 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.03 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:32 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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