Debate contribution: Children with Disabilities: Short Breaks
Debate contribution by Mr Mike Nesbitt on .
- MLA
- Mr Mike Nesbitt
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 9 December 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Children with Disabilities: Short Breaks
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4698418
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for her question. I believe very much in the power of the community and voluntary sector to deliver. That goes back to my time as a victims' commissioner, when dozens of community and voluntary groups were providing day-to-day assistance to victims and survivors of our long, 30-year conflict. Certainly, in the provision of health, if the community and voluntary sector were to collapse, it would have a profound impact on our ability to deliver healthcare in Northern Ireland. The Member may be aware that I worked with the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA) on a redesign of the core grant scheme. That is a scheme that had basically been closed to new organisations that had come on stream in the past 20 years. We now have a new scheme, and, in the next financial year, I hope to find a little more money to go into that. Currently, it sits at £1·8 million per annum. I would like to see that increased in the years ahead.
172 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: 0.04 (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).
- Subject area: Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism.
- 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 | 0.81 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.04 | 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 |
|---|---|
| Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism | 0.81 |
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.14 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.04 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:41 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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