Alliance MLA: I want a new law to ensure loyalist and republican paramilitary flags and murals are erased

Alliance MLA for North Down Connie Egan made the comments as the Stormont Assembly debated the idea of creating a “Strategic Framework for a Shared Future”.

In essence, this would be some kind of official commitment to tackling unionist / nationalist division.

A DUP MLA responded to say that the government mustn’t “seek to force artificially-contrived notions of integration upon society”.

The demand for official, written strategies has become commonplace among politicians and activists, who seek to invoke them to deal with racial issues, gay and transgender ones, “gender-based violence”, and more (the idea being that it commits the government to a formal course of action, and allows recourse to the courts to ensure the plans are enacted).

The motion before the Assembly today was introduced by Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw, who proposed it as a plan for “overcoming segregation and ending prejudice", adding: “I urge all members to back the motion to replace a bitter fearful and divided past with a reconciled hopeful and shared future led by all our executive ministers under a shared framework.”

The first person called in the debate was former IRA bomber Caral Ni Chuilin (Sinn Fein).

She said the motion was “very important... and I want to give my support”.

"There is still sectarianism out there," she lamented, saying that as well as “working class” sectarianism, "we also need to deal with middle class sectariansim that has went on for a long time as well".

She called for "better funding for good relations".

Alliance MLA Ms Egan told the Assembly: “There is much work we still need to do to progress and address our history in Northern Ireland.

"I'd like to see the sectarian demarcation of areas with flags, murals, and banners that promote proscribed paramilitary organisations fully outlawed with legislation to ensure removal by public bodies.”

Asked about this by the News Letter, the Alliance press office said this was a reference to a private member’s bill which Paula Bradshaw is seeking to bring.

Speaking on the Nolan Show last year, Ms Bradshaw had said her idea was to establish a process for people to apply before putting up flags, with a government body monitoring “"when they can be put up, and when they need to come down again".

More on sectarian murals here:

• Number of murals on public property growing – and loyalist ones far outnumber republican ones

Also speaking in the debate was the DUP MLA Harry Harvey.

He said the DUP is “committed to a shared future... provided it acknowledges and caters for all our communities and identities across NI”.

He went on to add: “Unfortunately, on occasion the genuineness and sincerity of some rings hollow in relation to shared futures, when it becomes apparent their shared future seems to be to freeze out those with whom they disagree or those who don't fit their narrative.

"If we want to see a genuine shared future it must be a future which celebrates, acknowledges and caters for everyone.”

He said that “community integration can only be achieved through natural permeation”.

"And whilst government can provide tools and mechanisms to support the creation and strengthening of social cohesion across traditional tribalism,” he said, “it cannot engage in the business of integration itself nor should it seek to force artificially-contrived notions of integration upon society.”

In the end though the motion passed unopposed, with nobody raising any objections when called upon by the speaker.