Speeches by Hanna.

“I do not disagree with any of that. A multi-year budget would go a very long way. I am sure that the current and former Health Ministers would concur. But do you accept the link between Stormont dysfunction, the decision-making logjam and the periods of absence, and that if we fail to reform Stormont we will be back he…”

“Thank you very much, Secretary of State. Do you recognise that we are in a bit of a fiscal doom loop, in that every year or two there is a crisis? The Executive say, “Give us more money,” and you say, “No. Spend what you have more effectively.” Then the Executive say, “We’ve overspent,” and you say, “Here’s a loan, but…”

“It has commenced that, but it is slow walking it—nothing is coming out of that process.”

“I have one small question for Minister Patrick. The Northern Ireland Office reported a £1.97 billion underspend on the expected drawdown from the Executive. Would you suggest that that is linked to brilliant efficiencies, or maybe to inadequacies in capital spend? Will that be taken into account when you are doing the …”

“We will come to the end of the road on collapse only if we address the mechanisms that allow people to collapse so readily, and to keep the Executive down so readily. While those tools are so easily available, they will be used.”

“We seem to disagree on the link—I am surprised by that—and on the effect that that instability and long periods of absence have on the public finances. How do you propose to go forward with the request from the Assembly, validly endorsed by a majority of MLAs, to convene discussions on reform?”

“Do you disagree that the Stormont instability is linked to this, and that if we fail to reform Stormont we are not going to address the problem? I am asking whether you agree with that as a proposition, and how you propose to respond to the majority of MLAs asking you, as the Secretary of State, to convene discussions …”

“The local growth fund was a UK Government policy that had been working to support some people outside of the labour market into decent work, helping to address Northern Ireland’s low productivity rates. The UK Government have changed that policy and the capital revenue split in a way that works for the Treasury, but no…”

“So that is planned but not delivered. Have you encountered any common misconceptions about trading to our region?”

“Can you describe your engagement to date with businesses and stakeholders, and any misconceptions you have picked up about trading goods and services to Northern Ireland?”

“So yours is two years commencing from the second appointment?”

“How long are their terms and your term?”

“Do you see your role as making them work?”

“Building on Robin’s question, can you clarify how the board was appointed, whether there was a public appointments process, and how long your term is?”

“Separate from the dual market opportunity, what other challenges relating to the Windsor framework are you encountering within businesses?”

“I wanted to ask you about businesses realising or not realising the benefits of dual market access, some of which appears to be down to its not being promoted actively, and some of the continuing frictions and complexities. I wanted to ask you about those—what feedback and patterns are you noticing from Northern Irelan…”

“Businesses would be impacted by further disruption, including the triggering of article 16 and other interventions. So it is not politics; it is about the impact on businesses. Could you set out any conflict of interest policy? Have you discussed reconciling views that individuals might express outside their work with …”

“Have you engaged with businesses in England, Scotland and Wales or networks outside the FSB?”

“Which would be impacted by the triggering of article 16.”

“Can you talk us through a board meeting? What would be the protocol? Do you have a conflict of interest policy, and how would you address disentangling your political pronouncements from interventions on behalf of Intertrade UK?”