Debate contribution: Ending Violence Against Women and Girls: PFG Commitments
Debate contribution by Ms Michelle O'Neill on .
- MLA
- Ms Michelle O'Neill
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 18 March 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Ending Violence Against Women and Girls: PFG Commitments
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4860649
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for the question. I confirm that £3·2 million has been allocated to the change fund under two work strands, both of which were launched in January, to assist local groups and organisations as well as eight community and voluntary sector expert organisations in their work to end violence against women and girls. As part of the EVAWG local change fund, £1·4 million has been allocated across councils. That will make grants of up to £25,000 available to community and voluntary sector organisations, which are operating in a very local way to provide funding direct to grassroots community groups to build capacity and allow them to take local action. I was with a young women's group for International Women's Day, and I was quite surprised to learn how that funding has filtered down to the grassroots level. Clonoe young women's group is a small rural community group that bid to the local council for a small pot of funding that would allow it to develop a device that helped young women in the community to feel safe. I felt so proud that a strategy that we agreed in the Chamber was making a difference on the ground with teenagers — young women and young men from across society — who were talking about ending violence against women and girls. That young women's group had devised something that was funded through the programme, which shows a high-level strategy working in action. I was proud of that work and proud to see that happening. Across all of our councils, applications are open until the end of this month, and delivery will commence from April 2025. On 21 January, we announced £1·2 million of investment under the EVAWG regional change fund, and that funding, again, will be available up until the end of March 2026 with the support and partnership of eight community and voluntary sector expert organisations that already lead the way across the North in preventing violence against women and girls. Additionally, we have provided £600,000 across the council areas.
342 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: 0.03 (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 (0.73).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.97).
- 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 | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.73 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.97 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.03 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.54 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.46 |
| 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 12:11 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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