Debate contribution: Ending Violence Against Women and Girls: Funding
Debate contribution by Ms Michelle O'Neill on .
- MLA
- Ms Michelle O'Neill
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 1 July 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Ending Violence Against Women and Girls: Funding
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5061739
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I concur with the Member. Many of us expressed our sadness and shock yesterday at the death of Sarah Montgomery. I cannot imagine what her family are going through. She was a young mummy who was expecting her next child and had her whole life ahead of her, and she was taken from her family in the most devastating way. That underlines for me how important the work is and how important it is for us to have a whole-society approach to tackling violence against women and girls. We have to get into the weeds of this, and it will take everybody working together to do so. Some of the projects that we have been able to develop are making a difference. I will cite a couple of examples. Nexus is delivering healthy and respectful relationship education to young people, which is a crucial part of the work. YouthAction also works with young people aged 14 to 25 to help them build their confidence, knowledge and understanding to make informed decisions about their lives in a way that will help to address violence against women and girls in the wider community. We also have the White Ribbon campaign, which we all support regularly. That campaign will now have an opportunity to develop and bring its 'Listen, Learn, Lead' programme into more schools, workplaces and community settings. That is all vital work because, as we all know, tackling violence against women and girls is about intervention, prevention and that early work. It is about trying to create a society in which women and girls feel safe and are safe everywhere.
269 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 (0.98).
- 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 | 0.04 | 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 | 0.73 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.98 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.02 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.62 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.38 |
| 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 13:03 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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