Debate contribution: Wildfires: Mournes
Debate contribution by Mr Andrew Muir on .
- MLA
- Mr Andrew Muir
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 9 March 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Wildfires: Mournes
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5453356
Read the official Assembly record
Text
My Department has appointed a consortium of international wildfire experts, led by the Pau Costa Foundation, to deliver a suite of wildfire mitigation work across Northern Ireland. The multi-year project primarily seeks to identify the wildfire risk and develop wildfire management recommendations and response plans for three designated landscapes: the eastern Mourne area of special scientific interest (ASSI) and special area of conservation (SAC); the Antrim Hills special protection area (SPA); and the Carn/Glenshane SAC. The project will engage local landowners and wildfire stakeholders to help gather evidence on the mitigation measures that need to be developed. I encourage all those who are approached by the project team to participate. In addition to that, it is important that I emphasise the messages that my Department has previously communicated about what is and is not appropriate in the countryside. I continue to urge those who have been maliciously and deliberately lighting wildfires to stop. No one should start a fire in the countryside unless it is part of a specific, planned and properly managed land management practice.
176 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 (0.67).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.98).
- 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 | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.03 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.04 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.67 | 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 |
|---|---|
| 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 15:05 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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