Debate contribution: Ministerial Comments: Health and Justice
Debate contribution by Mr Paul Givan on .
- MLA
- Mr Paul Givan
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 9 September 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Assembly Business
- Heading
- Ministerial Comments: Health and Justice
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5085776
Read the official Assembly record
Text
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Yesterday, in an interview with Cool FM, the Alliance Party leader and Justice Minister made an extraordinary attack on the teaching profession. She suggested that, on the basis of a common-sense policy that I set out in May and reiterated yesterday regarding transgender issues, some teachers would be part of an open season of bullying young people. That accusation was made in response to a position that I believe reflects the views of the vast majority of people, which is that biological boys should not use girls' toilets or changing rooms and should not participate in competitive sports with girls. In addition, I suggested that neither pupils nor teachers should be compelled to use pronouns other than those that reflect biological sex. I appreciate that some Members are going to find that difficult, but let me repeat what the Justice Minister said so that you can give me advice on how I can hold her to account in her role as leader of the Alliance Party or as Justice Minister. It is really important that the Assembly knows how to hold people to account. The Justice Minister said:
"I believe it is abandoning young people who are vulnerable, and I believe it is potentially going to have an open season on bullying of young people not just by other peers in their class and other members of the same age but actually by people within their classrooms — their teachers and others who may actually now be in a situation where they feel enabled to take their own ideological position and work that through the classroom."
Shameful, Mr Speaker. Will you advise me to understand whether those comments were made in her capacity as Alliance Party leader or as Justice Minister so that the Assembly and I can hold her to account and so that I can properly address my formal communication that I will issue later today calling on her to retract those comments and apologise to the teaching profession for that outrageous attack on its professionalism?
345 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues
Jev’s structured answers met every documented threshold for a qualifying culture-war activity.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.77 (qualifying needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not qualifying).
- Criteria met: Identity framing (0.79); Dog-whistle messaging (0.64); Controversy escalation (0.74).
- The text adopts the identity-based framing in its own voice (0.87).
- Subject area: Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues.
- The text adopts an antagonistic or dog-whistle framing, which qualifies even alongside legitimate scrutiny.
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 | 0.79 | Yes |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.36 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.18 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.64 | Yes |
| Controversy escalation | 0.74 | Yes |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.21 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.77 | Above qualifying threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing | 0.03 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.01 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.09 |
| Adopts it (chosen) | 0.87 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 1.00 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:56 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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