Member's statement: Cost-of-living Crisis
Member's statement by Ms Emma Sheerin on .
- MLA
- Ms Emma Sheerin
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 13 April 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Cost-of-living Crisis
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5483106
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Today, as we return from the Easter break, the frustration and anxiety across our community is palpable. People are worrying about how they will pay their bills, how they will put fuel in their cars and how they will feed their families. They are worrying and struggling again because of war; a political choice. They watch innocents die across the world without having the bandwidth to do anything to support them because funds are so tight at home. A political choice caused the cost-of-living crisis, and it is a political choice not to support people. The British Government could act today. They could cut fuel levies. They could put real, meaningful money into people's pockets, but what do they do? They choose once again to prioritise weapons of war over workers here by allocating an annual £13·4 billion extra to defence spending.
That is what Keir Starmer and the British Government want to do. How many cars would that put on the road? How many homes would that heat? How many people here could that support?
Members in the Chamber realise that they backed the wrong horse and stood cheerleading for Donald Trump when he once again made a reckless decision based on his ego. Instead of bickering, we should all stand united for the people whom we represent and call clearly on the British Government with one voice to support workers and families here. Every war that causes needless and senseless death and destruction across the world and leads more innocents to their death has a knock-on effect here. The working people whom we all represent and working-class communities here suffer and struggle. We have to be their voice. Time and history have taught us that the British Government do not care about people here, so we must stand united to make them do so.
306 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: 0.14 (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 (0.72).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.95).
- 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 | 0.09 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.05 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.10 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.10 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.72 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.14 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.95 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.03 |
| Adopts it | 0.02 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.86 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.06 |
| Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty | 0.03 |
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.03 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.02 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:17 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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