Topical question AQT 218/22-27

Topical question by Miss Nuala McAllister on 23 April 2024.

MLA: Miss Nuala McAllister
Party at the time: Alliance Party
Date: 23 April 2024
Type: Topical question
Assembly reference: AQT 218/22-27
Business: Oral Answers to Questions
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4485488

Text

Miss McAllister asked the Minister for Communities, who will be aware that his Department granted a licence for exploratory work at Milltown cemetery, in the area at the bottom of the cemetery that includes the graves of babies and unmarked burial plots, whether, given the information that has come to light, he will use his power to enforce that the Catholic Church, through the trust diocese, stops any works there until such time as an independent investigation is carried out.

80 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:

23 April 2024 – I can inform the Minister that I have in my possession, as do others, affidavits signed by former workers at Milltown…

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: 0.23 (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).
Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.86).
No identity-based framing was identified (0.91).
Subject area: Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice).
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

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	0.09	No
Sectarian or communal antagonism	0.06	No
Cultural grievance politics	0.10	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.07	No
Controversy escalation	0.16	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.86	Yes
Overall judgement	0.23	At or below not-flagging threshold

Context and attribution (stance)
Option	Probability
No identity-based framing (chosen)	0.91
Reports or questions it	0.03
Criticises or condemns it	0.04
Adopts it	0.02

Subject area (top five)
Subject	Probability
Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice)	0.93
Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism	0.05
No identity-related subject	0.01
Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations	0.01
Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials	0.00

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:03 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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