Debate contribution: Bonfire Regulation

Debate contribution by Mr Doug Beattie MC on 16 September 2025.

MLA

Mr Doug Beattie MC

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

16 September 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Bonfire Regulation

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5111432

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I have the dubious honour of having been on the FICT commission for three years. It was a good commission. It had good people on it, from across the political spectrum and across the divide, who came up with some really good ideas. Yes, many of those ideas have not been implemented, but they have been spoken about. The FICT commission covered an awful lot more than flags and bonfires, by the way. Sometimes, I think that we ignore other things that it covered because they do not work for us. It covered culture, identity, bonfires, flags on public buildings and street furniture, media, sport, language, arts in public spaces, murals, memorialisation and commemoration. Some political parties dodged that question pretty quickly. Let us look at bonfires, however. It has been said — this is true, and the situation has improved over the years — that the vast majority of bonfires in Northern Ireland pass off safely and are well-run community events. The commission has highlighted that on multiple occasions, and yet — here comes a stark truth — every bonfire in Northern Ireland is unlawful. It does not matter how long they have been happening for and, as we have said, some of them have been going for an awfully long time. Every single one of them is unlawful. The Fire and Rescue Service cannot engage directly with bonfire builders because they would be engaging directly with something unlawful. It is important to understand that. What is Sinn Féin actually —?

Absolutely. An unguarded fire anywhere, whether a bonfire or a campfire, is exactly that.

Yes.

It absolutely does, and my colleague will raise that later on, if that is OK. I am trying to get to the point of what Sinn Féin is actually calling for. Is it calling for legal authority for all bonfires? If so, that is what FICT recommends. FICT recommends that every bonfire be given legal authority. That is the starting point. If Sinn Féin is saying that it will give this legal authority, it is up to the AERA Minister to change the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 to allow bonfires to be lawful. If that is what we do, the first thing that I will do is press the AERA Minister about when he is will do it to make it lawful. If Sinn Féin is calling for article 10 of the Recreation and Youth Service (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 to be extended to other landowners — that is what it says in the recommendations — so that other landowners can identify land for people to build bonfires on, I will go to the First Minister to ask when that will happen.

I have not got time, mate. Honestly, I just stopped a minute ago, and I have only got a couple of minutes. Will Sinn Féin be calling on the Northern Ireland Executive to develop a new funded, civic-accredited arts and heritage, education, training and exhibition initiative in dedicated spaces for bonfires, as per the FICT recommendations? If it does, I will go to the Finance Minister to ask when he will provide the money for that. I hope that, in summing up, Sinn Féin can clarify what it is actually trying to achieve with the motion.

Just a moment. If it is recommending legal authority for bonfires as a starting position, there are a number of criteria, as per the FICT recommendations, that each bonfire will have to adhere to, including the height and distance ratio of 1:5. That is when the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service will engage to check whether there is a ratio of 1:5. What if there is a ratio of 1:4? What if it does not adhere to the criteria? Who is responsible? Is it the police, DAERA or the Executive? We need to know, because that is who we will be going to. Or is it a criminal justice issue? If it is, I will go to the Justice Minister to find out what she is going to do.

A couple of Members have asked me to give way. I will give way if you are brief.

I think that I am giving a mature view. I am giving the practicalities of where we are on this. I was a bonfire builder in my youth. I do not support flags being burnt on bonfires. I do not support images or posters being burnt on bonfires. I do not support effigies, apart from historical, traditional effigies, being burnt on bonfires. That is a fact. In most cases, bonfires and bonfire builders have addressed that, but the solution is not top-down legislation and regulation. It is bottom-up, community-level activism. Believe it or not, that is working, and you can go back and look at the statistics and see that it is working. If we pass this motion, an awful lot of Ministers will have an awful lot of work to do, because I will make sure that they are held to this. I will be honest: the motion is as vague as I have ever seen. It really is, because it has not gone into any details apart from the FICT Commission. If you look at the recommendations from the FICT Commission, you will see that there is an awful lot to it. The first is to make them all legal, and that is legal authority. It is difficult to support such a vague motion. I believe in a conversation, but let us make sure that it is from the ground up, from the communities to us, and not just us dictating.

940 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:15 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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