Debate contribution: Cricket: DFC Support
Debate contribution by Mr Gordon Lyons on .
- MLA
- Mr Gordon Lyons
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 9 June 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Cricket: DFC Support
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4997465
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Sport NI has confirmed to me the support that it has provided. Through Crowdfunder schemes such as Creating Opportunities and Project Reboot, £122,500 of lottery funding has been provided to cricket clubs in the past three years, including £30,000 so far for 2025-26. Under the Sports System Investment - Governing Bodies programme, a total of £1·359 million has been invested in the past three years. That investment, including £457,000 for 2025-26, has meant that the number of children from Northern Ireland who are participating in Cricket Ireland's national junior programmes, "Smash it" and "It's Wicket!", has doubled from 496 to 1,000. Eight disability groups, five youth groups, 10 migrant groups and seven older-adult groups have been engaged through Cricket Connects programmes, and there has been a 20% increase in the number of trained match officials.
135 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).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- Subject area: Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies.
- 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 | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.59 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | 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 |
|---|---|
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.53 |
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.35 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.07 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.02 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.02 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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