Debate contribution: Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers
Debate contribution by Mr Robbie Butler on .
- MLA
- Mr Robbie Butler
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 30 May 2022
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Assembly Business
- Heading
- Election of Speaker and Deputy Speakers
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4177695
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Mr Acting Speaker, I take this opportunity to welcome you to the Chair. I hope that you will not sit there too many times. As for your being Father of the House, I hope that there will not be too many in-jokes in the UUP room; maybe it all went on this morning. I welcome the chance, albeit in a potentially artificial setting, to nominate my colleague and friend Mr Mike Nesbitt for the position of Speaker. I do so in full confidence that Mike is indeed the right person for that role. Mike's attributes are many, but his political leadership and confidence are perhaps eclipsed only by his unparalleled articulation. I struggle to say that word, but he is incredibly articulate. I enjoy listening to him, and many across the Chamber enjoy Mike's participation. Mike is responsible for me being here today. As a councillor in Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council, I received a call from him one day. He asked me to come and visit Stormont. It was my first visit to Stormont; I had never been here before.
He spoke about a Northern Ireland for everyone and about his brand of unionism, which very much resonated with mine. It was his confidence and belief in my ability that contributed to me entering the fray, and it is a real privilege today to return that favour and formally nominate Mr Mike Nesbitt for the role of Speaker. I referred to the sitting today as being potentially artificial because we will know in a short time whether we can convince the party to my right to make a move today. Whilst I said that it is artificial, it is absolutely within the rules, and I hope that the DUP shows a graduated response, as has been articulated by the DUP leader in its response to the moves by the British Government with regard to the protocol. I agree with him that it is absolutely unfair, particularly to the people who elected me in Lagan Valley. Having covered the ground across Lagan Valley, I can attest that the DUP was clear on the doorsteps about not nominating for First Minister or, indeed, deputy First Minister without the protocol being addressed, but at no point was the matter of nominating for Speaker mentioned. That, along with the co-option in place of the DUP leader, has left many voters in Lagan Valley shaking their heads and feeling misled. My leader spoke here a couple of weeks ago, and he majored on the silence of this place while the people of Northern Ireland battle with crippling waiting lists and the health service remains under so much pressure. I pay absolute respect to the Minister of Health whom we had during the pandemic, because there was not one person behind a door that I knocked who said that we did not have the right person in the right place at the right time. The cost-of-living crisis gets worse every day. Whilst I call on the DUP to at least enable the Assembly to function and Ministers to be scrutinised by supporting our nomination today, we at least can agree that the issues that I have spoken of will not disappear and need to be addressed now because they are getting worse. With that in mind, the UUP has written today to ask the head of the Civil Service to convene all-party talks to establish a Programme for Government and the Minister of Finance to reopen the public consultation on the Budget to allow our people to let us know how they want their money to be spent. Those are measures that, I believe, can and should be taken now to restore, in some way, the confidence of the people of Northern Ireland whom we all purport to serve. It gives me great pleasure to once again nominate Mr Mike Nesbitt for the role of Speaker of the House.
654 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: 0.15 (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).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.97).
- 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 | 0.17 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.05 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.03 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.10 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.15 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.28 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.15 | At or below not-qualifying threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.97 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.01 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.02 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty | 0.65 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.24 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.05 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.05 |
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.01 |
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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