Topical question AQT 1281/22-27
Topical question by Mr Matthew O'Toole on .
- MLA
- Mr Matthew O'Toole
- Party at the time
- Social Democratic and Labour Party
- Date
- 12 May 2025
- Type
- Topical question
- Assembly reference
- AQT 1281/22-27
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4937583
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Mr O'Toole asked the First Minister and deputy First Minister, after acknowledging the deputy First Minister's earlier remarks, in which she mentioned the importance of showcasing and visiting things, and the fact that, along with the First Minister, she has made a habit of visiting places — she mentioned North Carolina, Washington DC and the North West 200 — what they spend their day doing, given that when he looked at the Executive Office website he found that it has been more than two months since TEO's last substantive policy announcement, which was on the start of a competition for a new Commissioner for Public Appointments.
106 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:
- 12 May 2025 – Deputy First Minister, I appreciate that you have secured agreement to a Programme for Government and a Budget. Those…
- 12 May 2025 – Deputy First Minister, people here, particularly young people, want more than endless rows over signs and statues. Do…
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: 0.50 (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 (0.76).
- The overall probability was moderate at most and none of the culture-war criteria was close to being met.
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 | 0.07 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.04 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.04 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.23 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.14 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.48 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.50 | Between thresholds |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.76 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.03 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.04 |
| Adopts it | 0.17 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.73 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.13 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.09 |
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.02 |
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.01 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:22 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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