Debate contribution: Cost of Doing Business in Northern Ireland
Debate contribution by Dr Caoimhe Archibald on .
- MLA
- Dr Caoimhe Archibald
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 13 May 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Cost of Doing Business in Northern Ireland
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4947859
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The research was conducted before the proposals for the 'good jobs' Bill were published. It is important to recognise that good jobs benefit everybody in our economy and that evidence clearly demonstrates that employers benefit from having a more productive and engaged workforce. There is a clear need to modernise our employment rights framework, and that is what we are doing. One reason for modernising is so that the good employers that we all know in our constituencies are not at a competitive disadvantage compared with those who do not treat their workers fairly. On zero-hours contracts specifically, under the proposals that I have set out, we will ban exploitative zero-hours contracts so that, where a worker has regular hours on a regular basis, they will be entitled to a banded hours contract, but there will be exceptions for genuinely casual and seasonal work. Even in that instance, we are taking steps, for example, to ban the exclusivity clauses that can be in place here. We have tried to strike a balance between ensuring that workers' rights are protected and recognising the case that has been made to us that there are genuine circumstances in which such contracts can be useful to employers and workers.
205 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 (0.93).
- 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 | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.93 | 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 | 0.98 |
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.01 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.01 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:35 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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