Stormont votes for release of completed flags and culture report

The commission's work was stalled shortly after it began, due to the collapse of the power-sharing executive in January 2017

Politicians at Stormont have backed a call for the Executive Office to publish a long-awaited report into dealing with flags and culture.

A commission was set up in 2016 in a bid to find consensus on the issues.

It was to report back to the executive within 18 months, but its work stalled when devolution collapsed.

Its findings were submitted to the first and deputy first ministers last July, but have not yet been made public.

On Monday, assembly members (MLAs) supported a motion from Alliance calling on the Executive Office to publish the report drawn up by the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition (FICT).

They also backed an SDLP amendment calling for the executive to also "honour their commitments" within the New Decade, New Approach deal that restored power-sharing in January 2020.

It committed the parties to establishing an Office of Identity and Cultural Expression, which would deal with issues tackled by the flags commission.

'Simply not good enough'

Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw said the report "appears to have disappeared into the Executive Office".

She said it was "simply not good enough that five years after the commission was established", its findings had not been published.

SDLP MLA Colin McGrath criticised the Executive Office for a "lack of delivery" on language and culture commitments in New Decade, New Approach.

The commission was announced as part of the Fresh Start Agreement

But Sinn Féin junior minister Declan Kearney said a working group set up by the executive to make progress on issues raised by the report had met for the first time on Thursday

He said the executive was committed to delivering on recommendations made in the report.

But he added: "The commission considered some of our most complex societal issues... and many of these issues have been with us for generations.

"The report provides us with pathways to make progress potentially on a number of those core issues, however I repeat that we should remember no single report, policy or strategy could hope to provide conclusive solutions to all of these long-standing issues.

"We should all be realistic, it is inevitable at the conclusion of any such process that challenges will remain."

It is believed the report runs to approximately 150 pages and makes recommendations to the executive across a number of areas that have long caused division in Northern Ireland.

In 2019, BBC News NI revealed the body had cost more than £730,000, with more than half of that figure spent on fees and expenses for its members.

The commission has 15 members, seven of whom were appointed by the political parties while eight were employed through a recruitment process.

Who heads the commission?

The FICT is jointly chaired by community relations worker Neville Armstrong and Prof Dominic Bryan.

Prof Bryan is a reader at the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queen's University Belfast and lists his research as focusing upon the role played by symbols and rituals during the conflict and peace in Northern Ireland.

Why was the commission set up?

The commission was announced as part of the Fresh Start Agreement, negotiated by the Stormont parties in November 2015.

It was supposed to help the parties reach consensus on contentious issues surrounding flags, emblems and identity in Northern Ireland, and produce recommendations for the executive to take forward.

It began its work in June 2016, after its make-up was announced by the then first and deputy first ministers.

Five of those on the panel have links to unionism - it also includes a former Alliance Party special adviser, a former SDLP adviser and a former Sinn Féin councillor.

This article was updated on 23 March 2021.