Speeches by Hanna.

“Q7. Even its strongest advocates acknowledge that Northern Ireland is trapped in dysfunction—not because reform is not possible, but because the DUP and Sinn Féin have not allowed it. We have become a political “Hotel California”, where the past is always around but the future never arrives. There is growing public con…”

“My colleague Sinéad McLaughlin in the Assembly is bringing forward a regional imbalance Bill, and she just got the green light from the Speaker before Christmas that that will come through in this mandate. Obviously, it is about a mindset shift as well as targets and monitoring. That is open for consultation, but are t…”

“So it is culture as much as strategy as well. Do either Tim or Steven have anything to add?”

“That is what you will get from Sinéad; I cannot promise what the Assembly will do.”

“We are exporting our best resource.”

“The Minister will be aware that for a number of months, I have been raising concerns about the local growth fund and its impact in Northern Ireland. Just before Christmas, organisations got the devastating news of a large cut to the local growth fund, which will devastate a number of support jobs and work done to help …”

“I just want to come back on some of those and maybe draw out some of your comments, Alison. Obviously, yours is a border region, so it is most astute, but clearly the island economy is vital for all parts of the region. You mentioned, and I was going to ask about, an investment strategy and, I suppose, the failure in S…”

“Back to your point about agility, really. Obviously, businesses want to trade in the north, south, east and west as well. Gavin referenced the challenges that that really positive Encirc facility is facing. Is there more that the UK Government could be doing as well? Notwithstanding some of the Brexit frictions, do you…”

“In relation to the A5, I think the judicial proceedings indicated that it is compatible with the ’22 Act; it is departmental bungling that has got us to this point. I suppose that is a story running through some of the issues. At the risk of getting you in trouble, Tim, I thought you made very practical and astute comm…”

“The decision has been made, and I am now trying to engage. If we are doing this, let us do it as well as possible. Jonny, what criminal justice mechanisms are left undelivered by the Northern Ireland Assembly? Again, we probably do not have enough time, or wine, to get into all those issues about the space vacated, but…”

“Residue and remnants will be left and will fill the space.”

“Thank you. We are going to get the expert in at some point.”

“In summary, there are individuals who might want to have this part of their life written off, but the structures, the organisations and the concepts are not going to disappear.”

“Are there mechanisms and tools that we are not deploying or have not legislated for within our current competence?”

“You said “where they are working”. I do not know whether this is appropriate, but can you point to a PCSP somewhere that is an example of good practice? I am not trying to put you on the spot, because my analysis of them—and I have served on one—is not a million miles away from that. Is there one that is working well?”

“You will know that the two Governments recently appointed an independent expert to scope paramilitary group transition to disbandment. I want to ask for your views on this. Are we doing enough within the current criminal justice system? There is the narrative of, “Oh, jeez, nothing else has worked. We will have to pay …”

“Yes, that is entirely the point that it makes.”

“Marie, is there anything that you wanted to add to that, specifically on that concept of shock absorbing and the police having to address political failures?”

“FICT is a big commission to try to address issues around markers of identity such as flags, emblems and murals. Basically, we have left it on a shelf and not implemented it. Something like that, as well as guidance around flag flying and paramilitary emblems, would make the police’s job a lot easier.”

“We are moving into failings that are not related to legacy issues, such as gender-based issues. You rightly use the term “shock absorbers” and spoke about the PSNI having to, essentially, police our way out of political failures. Can you expand a bit on that and how you might bridge the disconnect?”