Member's statement: Flooding: Coalisland
Member's statement by Mrs Linda Dillon on .
- MLA
- Mrs Linda Dillon
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 25 November 2024
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Flooding: Coalisland
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4674498
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I wish to speak about the flooding at the weekend. First, my thoughts are with all those whose homes or businesses were flooded, but I particularly reference the flooding in Coalisland and the Clonoe area, particularly the Kings Row area of Coalisland town. Flooding has, unfortunately, been an ongoing issue in Kings Row over many years. People's homes have flooded when there have been serious storms or heavy rainfall. Work was done a few years ago to address the flooding. It did address it over several storms and periods of heavy rain, but, unfortunately, the rain on Friday night and Saturday morning brought serious issues for the residents of Kings Row in Coalisland. In particular, my thoughts are with a family who had to remove the remains of their mother from her home, which was a traumatic experience. The family were burying her this morning, and my thoughts are with them. The dignity with which the services carried out their work and helped the family to remove the remains was very much appreciated by them. I acknowledge that here. Going forward, we need to ensure that no family living in Kings Row has to face that again. People are out of their homes in the mouth of Christmas, and their homes are destroyed. There is nothing more devastating than seeing your home destroyed, and trying to repair a water-damaged home is a horrific experience for anybody. We need to ensure that those families do not experience flooding again and can live in their homes. They are unable to get insurance because of the previous flooding. They need to be able to live in their homes and know that, when it rains, they do not have to panic or call their local elected reps and say, "Please, help us to get sandbags. Help us to get the agencies out here". In that vein, I spoke to the Infrastructure Minister this morning, and he said that, if there is anything that his Department needs to do or has not done, he will ensure that it is addressed. He has asked for urgent updates from his officials on the matter but also for solutions going forward. We will have an inter-agency meeting facilitated, I believe, by the Mid Ulster District Council, but it must be pulled together urgently so that families are not in fear that their homes will be flooded again. I call on all those responsible, particularly the housing association that owns a number of the homes, to ensure that all work is carried out with urgency to allow the families to return to their homes before Christmas. A lot of work has happened on the ground, and elected representatives were out helping residents this morning, as they were on Saturday morning. I commend the elected representatives who were on the ground on Saturday from early morning until late afternoon to help the residents.
Particular regard goes to those residents, and my thoughts are with all the families who had to leave their home.
503 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).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.81).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- 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 | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.81 | Yes |
| 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 |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.99 |
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:38 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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