Debate contribution: Display of Flags, Emblems and Banners

Debate contribution by Mr Declan Kearney on 30 April 2024.

MLA: Mr Declan Kearney
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 30 April 2024
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: Display of Flags, Emblems and Banners
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4487352

Text

We need to take a zero tolerance position in these political institutions and in wider society on the undignified and disrespectful flying of all national flags, and we also need unequivocal opposition to the use of flags and emblems to entrench sectarian segregation, harass or intimidate. The misuse of public property to do so and the lack of effective legal authority exacerbate the practice. Disagreement over flags or emblems is a symptom of sectarian segregation in this society. Instead, we need united political leadership to tackle sectarianism and issues of cultural equality and respect. The FICT report sought to address those issues. It did not provide all the solutions. It identified where challenges remain. Disagreement over the erection and use of flags, particularly on public property, is a case in point. However, it offered a road map on how issues that are at the heart of division in the North, including our cultural traditions and identities, could be celebrated on the basis of equality and respect. Throughout my term as a junior Minister, I consistently sought to achieve not only the publication of the FICT report but an associated implementation plan. The issues that are addressed in the report were and are challenging. That is why an implementation plan was and remains the correct thing to do. Others resisted and frustrated all attempts to bring an implementation plan to the Executive. The Good Friday Agreement and FICT report provide the reference points for addressing the display of flags and emblems on public property. However, effective resolution of the issue will not be found in a vacuum. It will require categoric legal authority, cross-departmental coordination and for agencies such as the police to meet their statutory responsibilities. It is not good enough for legal lacunae to be used as an excuse to pass the parcel. Relying on the same approaches guarantees only the same outcomes. The Member who spoke at the beginning of the debate must have been reading my mind when she suggested that, in the absence of movement by the Executive Office, she would seek leave to carry forward a consultation for a private Member's Bill. I was going to make the same point. I will happily cooperate with you on that approach, Paula, if we are compelled to do so. That may well be the requirement that is placed upon us if there is no change. We need to constructively manage identity, culture and tradition, which continue to cause division. However, when appropriate lawful authority and means of enforcement do not exist, they need to be put in place. For our part, we in Sinn Féin are committed to real delivery on how to deal with flags, identity, culture and tradition. I want to see an inclusive, welcoming, multicultural society in the North that has anti-sectarianism at its core. That is the message that must constantly echo from these institutions. That is the obligation that power-sharing places on all of us, and that is what positive political leadership must be about.

503 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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