Speeches by Hanna.

“I suppose I would just say that there is no record of the political analysis of the security services being conducive to truth and reconciliation in our region. Their political analysis should not be elevated above the needs of those families and their lawful rights to information.”

“They do exist, though.”

“How many declarations, or potential conflicts of interest, have been made? Do any of those correspond to point 10 of your conflict-of-interest policy?”

“I am talking about investigators and staff.”

“I am trying to get a sense of how many are being declared and how broad this is. I hear and understand your alternative perspective, but I am sure you can understand the anxiety that people have. In terms of creating confidence in a new body—which already has some substantial deficiencies—I am trying to understand how …”

“I was trying to understand how widespread it is, but we have loads of ground to cover.”

“We are though.”

“I regularly receive representations from businesses, some of our biggest employers, who are frustrated by the apprenticeship levy. They pay in like businesses in Britain, but cannot access the fund to reinvest in skills and fix our broken skills pipeline. Does the Secretary of State agree that there is merit in devolvi…”

“Gavin has touched on some of the specifics, but could you, if you have not already, give us your overall assessment of the working group’s progress in mitigating the impact, and comment on what, ideally, you would see as an interim measure, absent the wider EU-UK deal that I think we all hope to see?”

“Wherever this lands, the reality is that it would have to be within range of the EU’s rules and protocols. Do you have a view on what EU veterinary agreement is most suitable for the UK—mutual recognition or equivalence? As you say, it is not just current medications; it will be future stuff as well.”

“Sorcha picked up on the Commission having an office, which I think many people would see as a very natural thing—a no-brainer. It was more or less assumed that this would be the case, but it was effectively traded away in one of the mad moments of posturing. Obviously, there are issues, and there is plenty of scope for…”

“So, to confirm, you definitely see the logic in a physical Commission presence in Belfast. Do you see that that would be useful for exactly the type of upstream scanning that you are talking about? Can you see potential enhancements of Northern Ireland’s presence and operation in Brussels?”

“Don’t even go there.”

“Thank you. I will pick up on some of those points later.”

“This is an illustrative example of my concern that, while it is really important that all necessary efforts are made to mitigate the impact on business and consumers in Northern Ireland, particularly due to the movement of goods, that risks overlooking some of the non-trade impacts of Brexit, including the many disrupt…”

“I will come back to you on other practical implications if time allows, but do you think the Joint Committee and others have had sufficient interest and focus on this? Has there been sufficient engagement with civil society organisations and others mapping and following all of this?”

“Is there a reason for that—one that you want to share—and are you making any recommendations, including to Lord Murphy’s review?”

“I am going to come back to your recommendations, but can I pull out that Lough Neagh example? It is a very visible, lurid green and terrifying example of what is going wrong. What are its practical impacts?”

“I know you could. We are no longer quorate—I appreciate the Chair trying to keep us moving—but what you said illustrates the point exactly. The arrangements were frozen in time around a political mood a year ago—and an obsession with sausages, feelings and all that—and stewardship of our most vital environmental resour…”

“Yes.”