Debate contribution: Election of the Speaker
Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on .
- MLA
- Mr Matthew O'Toole
- Party at the time
- Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Date
- 3 February 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Assembly Business
- Heading
- Election of the Speaker
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4254928
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker. Before I get on to moving the nomination of my friend Patsy McGlone, let me first pay tribute to you. You are a very experienced retailer, and you have had to do quite a lot of minding the shop in this place over the past while. You have done it with good grace and competence. As others have done, I would like to pay real, sincere tribute to Alex Maskey, the outgoing Speaker. Alex was a fine Speaker who had a brilliant record of acting with impartiality, robustness and fairness in the Chair. As others have said, as a republican, he made real progress in his outreach around cross-community work. Just last year, he and I had a somewhat surreal moment chatting to one another in Hillsborough Castle while we were waiting for the new King to arrive. I think that he and I were both slightly nonplussed by being there, but Alex, as always, stood up to the moment and did himself and his party proud. He has now been on the longest farewell tour since Springsteen, and I hope that he enjoys a retirement now that the tour is coming to an end. This is now the sixth or seventh time that I have moved a nomination for Patsy McGlone, and I am proud to do so today. Notwithstanding the quality of the other candidates, I am sure — many others will agree with me — that Patsy McGlone is the most qualified candidate to be Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly. He is the most experienced Chair that we have. He has been an elected representative for more than 30 years, proudly serving the people of Mid Ulster in south Derry and east Tyrone. He has been a Member of the Assembly for more than 21 years. He has done that role with diligence, commitment to cross-community politics and commitment to the kind of progressive, pro-reconciliation values that have always marked my party out. He would be the first fluent Gaeilgeoir to take a seat in the Speaker's Chair of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Given that we are now in a Chamber that, for the first time, can do simultaneous translation for Irish speakers and given that the Irish-speaking community is moving forward and expanding into new communities and new speakers in a way that we are all excited about, it would mark a really profound moment to elect Patsy, a fluent Gaeilgeoir, to the Chair.
I say that notwithstanding the quality of the other candidates. We will not be supporting them; we will be supporting Patsy. However, whoever is elected to the Chair, we look forward to working with them positively.
450 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: 0.10 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.96).
- Subject area: Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging 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 | 0.28 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.11 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.03 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.10 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.07 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.10 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.96 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.04 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.88 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.09 |
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.01 |
| Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty | 0.01 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.01 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:33 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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