Debate contribution: The draft Period Products (the Executive Office Specified Public Service Bodies) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024
Debate contribution by Ms Aisling Reilly on .
- MLA
- Ms Aisling Reilly
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 21 October 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- The draft Period Products (the Executive Office Specified Public Service Bodies) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4603628
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I thank Members for their contributions. The regulations mark a further step in the implementation of the Period Products (Free Provision) Act 2022. As I stated in my opening remarks, the regulations will sit alongside the Executive Office's separate duty under the 2022 Act to make period products publicly available. As I stated, Libraries NI, in partnership with our Department, has been making products available for people to take home since May 2024. It also allows for others to collect products for someone else who needs them. The regulations will ensure that staff and visitors in TEO's arm's-length bodies are able to avail themselves of free products, if they need them while on those premises. Once the regulations are made, there are several further steps that the Executive Office and its arm's-length bodies will need to complete. First, the Department will consult the relevant bodies on the guidance to be issued. Arm's-length bodies will then consult their product users on the ways in which products can be obtained, where they will be located and the types of products that will be available. Following that, the ALBs will publish a statement on the arrangements that are to be put in place. ALBs will be required to make sure that products are made available in a way that respects the dignity, privacy and confidentiality of the person accessing the free products. Those who may need the products — any person who menstruates — should, therefore, be able to pick them up, without having to ask someone, from an accessible location in the ALB's premises: for example, from a disabled bathroom. Arm's-length bodies will also be required to consider using environmentally friendly, sustainable or biodegradable products. The 2022 Act also requires that those bodies have regard to products that are reusable. Our officials have been liaising with the arm's-length bodies as to how the regulations will be implemented, and I am pleased to report that the Department's ALBs have fully embraced the scheme. In advance of the regulations coming into effect, all our ALBs have undertaken to make free period products available on a pilot basis. That will, no doubt, assist them in establishing arrangements as required by the 2022 Act. Our Department has also undertaken to make free period products available to its staff and visitors. Our officials, working with the ALBs, estimate the costs to be negligible, and it is likely that those costs will be absorbed within the arm's-length bodies' existing baselines. Our officials will also monitor the roll-out of the scheme in our ALBs and the wider provision in public libraries to ensure that those who wish to access products can do so. To clarify, the arm's-length bodies will make free period products available for those who need them, such as employees or visitors, while on their premises. On the other hand, public libraries are providing products for everyone who needs them. It is still early days for the scheme, but the feedback has already been very positive, and we are confident that it will benefit our citizens' well-being and promote period dignity. I thank Members for the support that they have signalled for the regulations, and I commend the regulations to the Assembly.
540 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: 0.02 (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 (1.00).
- Subject area: Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues.
- 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 | 0.03 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.59 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.02 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.76 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.24 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:25 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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