Speeches by Kearns.

“Me, too. Miles, let us turn to the economics of illegal vapes and illegal tobacco. You may also want to touch on firearms and money laundering, given your previous experience. What are we seeing there, in terms of nature, actors and trends?”

“Most of the tobacco and vape shops within England seem to be run by Kurdish gangs or Turkish gangs. I presume that that is not the same in Northern Ireland, or are you starting to see that creep in?”

“We have just heard evidence that there is strong co-operation, but that more structures were needed. Are investigations collapsing or being frustrated because of a lack of structures? Do you have real-time alerts across the borders? Do you therefore need—I think the recommendations were for this—a UK-Ireland joint co-o…”

“So you do need a structure?”

“Rob, you will be aware that there is a crisis of male violence in Northern Ireland. I am interested in the role of sexual violence and child abuse within paramilitary organisations.”

“Chair, perhaps the Committee could write to the PSNI to ask for its view. Rob, is there anything that we should be aware of that is new, alarming or that we should keep an eye on with trends in activity by paramilitaries in Northern Ireland?”

“You mentioned that there is strong co-operation, but also that you think there need to be more formalised structures—either a joint co-ordination hub or more timely alert sharing. Are you aware, through your interviews or your roundtables, or from the public domain anywhere, of any failures or collapses of cases or inv…”

“Forgive me, but you spend your time having private conversations, roundtables and discussions with serving and former police officers, so to come to the conclusion that there needs to be a joint co-ordination hub, there must be an issue or a problem that is not being delivered on. Therefore, you presumably have police …”

“So the recommendation for a UK-Ireland joint co-ordination hub is based on evidence from Scotland rather than from Northern Ireland?”

“As things were initially settling down?”

“It would be really helpful to get your assessment, because things have bedded down quite significantly since then. Obviously, the pandemic had a significant impact in many ways on the ability to police. Can I pick up on the question of judging the nature, and the emerging trends, of what you are seeing across the borde…”

“Are those primarily Irish nationals, or are they people being trafficked from elsewhere into Ireland as an easy way to get them into the UK?”

“You mentioned that drugs are common across the area. What type of drugs does your research show are involved? Is it cocaine? Is it Captagon? What sort of thing are we seeing?”

“Rob, you said there has been no spike in CTA abuse and obviously these long-term routes. In terms of cross-border criminality, what percentage would you say is paramilitary versus organised crime groups—or is it just too blurred for you to segregate significantly?”

“In terms of the ethnicity or descent of the organised crime groups, if we take paramilitary techniques we try and remove them, is there a certain percentage of organised crime groups operating across the border who are, for example, of a completely descent—not Irish, UK or English?”

“Within themselves.”

“Going back to the conversation about nature, actors and trends. We have heard that there has been no particular spike, so volume is not particularly relevant. Gordon and Rob, in terms of people smuggling, would you agree with the evidence that we heard earlier that we are seeing people being trafficked mainly for sexua…”

“Where are those routes coming from: outside Ireland or within Ireland? Where are people being smuggled from to Ireland? What are the main source countries?”

“I know what GB means. Where are the people who are being trafficked across the CTA coming from before they come to Ireland, or where are they coming from within Ireland?”

“Thank you. Rob, looking at drugs specifically, you mentioned cocaine with increased purity. Where is that coming from upstream? Does Ireland have a very specific passageway and routes that we are seeing that are different? What are the other drugs that we are also seeing?”