Topical question AQT 221/22-27

Topical question by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 29 April 2024.

MLA: Mr Matthew O'Toole
Party at the time: Social Democratic and Labour Party
Date: 29 April 2024
Type: Topical question
Assembly reference: AQT 221/22-27
Business: Oral Answers to Questions
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4486092

Text

Mr O'Toole asked the First Minister and deputy First Minister whether the First Minister agrees that we need an open border on this island, something that the SDLP has spent years arguing for, for goods and people, and whether she agrees that, should a united Ireland be successfully achieved, we will need the most open of borders possible between the islands of Britain and Ireland.

65 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:

29 April 2024 – First Minister, I specifically asked you about the phrase "open borders". That is important because our parties have…

Assessment

Not flagged

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: 0.38 (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 (0.61).
Subject area: Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty.
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

Probability that each statement is true of this text (0 = no, 1 = yes). A criterion counts as met at 0.60 or above.
Question	Probability	Met?
Identity framing	0.19	No
Sectarian or communal antagonism	0.02	No
Cultural grievance politics	0.03	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.09	No
Controversy escalation	0.19	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.54	No
Overall judgement	0.38	Between thresholds

Context and attribution (stance)
Option	Probability
No identity-based framing (chosen)	0.61
Reports or questions it	0.07
Criticises or condemns it	0.18
Adopts it	0.14

Subject area (top five)
Subject	Probability
Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty	0.82
No identity-related subject	0.16
Immigration, asylum, race, ethnicity and Travellers	0.01
Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations	0.01
Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials	0.00

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:02 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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