Member's statement: Antrim: Flood Prevention
Member's statement by Mr Trevor Clarke on .
- MLA
- Mr Trevor Clarke
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 2 February 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Antrim: Flood Prevention
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5356175
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Quite often, people look back at past events. I am glad that the Infrastructure Minister is in the Chamber, because I want to talk about past events for the people of Massereene Street and the Riverside area in Antrim who had their houses flooded last week. Since I came to office in 2007, those houses have been flooded on numerous occasions. What did the residents get? Hollow words and hollow promises. Indeed, they were promised that once the rivers rose to a certain level, DFI Rivers, in conjunction with DFI Roads, would bring in pumps to prevent flooding. However, that did not happen last week. On one day last week, one of the residents rang the helpline several times after 9.00 am, requesting that the pump be put into action. However, the pump did not arrive until 4.00 pm, by which time the water had entered their house. It was too little, too late. Of course, we then had the ministerial visit after the flood waters had dissipated. I am sure that there were hollow words, promises and tea and sympathy, but the people in Antrim are fed up with tea and sympathy. They want solutions. They have been promised solutions for years. Every time that there is rain, those people are on rain watch: watching the river levels to see whether their homes will be flooded again. Some of those people face extraordinarily high insurance premiums, and some cannot even get insurance for their properties.
I follow on from my colleague's comments about failure: the Infrastructure Minister has failed to take action and get her Department to do what it should be doing to allow those people to look forward and have confidence. When the next rain event happens — one thing that we can be sure of in this country is that there will be plenty of rain — those people do not want to look out and see rising river levels and water entering their property. I will tell you what else they do not want to see: the Minister coming for tea and sympathy after they have mopped up. They want action.
356 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 (0.85).
- 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 | 0.03 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.03 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.03 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.85 | Yes |
| 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 |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 1.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:18 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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