Speeches by Robinson.

“What about with MHCLG?”

“Is this the third consecutive year in which groups have benefited from schemes—employability schemes primarily, but not just them—have had a cliff edge towards the end of a financial year?”

“Thank you. That is interesting. It highlights exactly the sort of frustration that you have on behalf of your members, service users and beneficiaries, and how important that is. Could I ask you, Celine, and then Martin and David, to indicate the impact of the lack of clarity for yourselves as previous recipients of th…”

“It is interesting, because you can see that the answer to that question came two weeks ago, and the Secretary of State indicated how important engagement was, but all three of you are indicating that there has been none. That is with the Secretary of State directly; have you had any engagement with his officials?”

“David?”

“The Prime Minister has a deep understanding of policing in Northern Ireland and its importance. He knows about the ongoing national security threat and about the additional costs of dealing with the legacy of our past. He knows that the Police Service of Northern Ireland has been underfunded, and that the Northern Irel…”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. It is quite right that she took the last two interventions because she was talking about cross-party support for Northern Ireland farms. She is blessed to have a constituency with some of the most fertile and therefore valuable agricultural land in Northern Ireland…”

“rose—”

“Thank you.”

“In fairness to you, Lord Murphy, you are right that the recommendation, in and of itself, does not have significance. The issue, however, does. It was before the Supreme Court last week. There is a contested argument now as to whether article 2, in its textual terms, is around “no diminution of rights” at the time the …”

“Do you agree with their suggestion that article 2 of the Windsor framework is often overlooked?”

“You have framed all this around recommendations that followed consensus among the parties. There is a recommendation in your report that I am not sure you will have heard much from us on that would have led to consensus. It was a recommendation that arose out of a view given by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commiss…”

“Were you disappointed that the First Minister for all did not engage with your process?”

“For the benefit of the text, he flapped his wings.”

“Thank you for your engagement during the process. I think it was cordial and thoughtful, and we appreciate your work, although not necessarily the outcome, but that is politics. Whenever we met—you were kind enough to meet this Committee at the very start of your review, and we had a discussion in one of the Committee …”

“Good morning, Lord Murphy.”

“I understand how you can issue a protocol like that for the commission. My question is whether the Northern Ireland courts service will agree to that for the use of the coronial process? If the courts service agrees that through the coronial process, will they also agree to it through the criminal justice process?”

“For veterans only?”

“In respect of the coroner’s courts, has the Northern Ireland courts service agreed a “no cold call” facility for veterans only?”

“Thank you. Secretary of State, very briefly, because the Chair wants to move on and to shut me down generally—that is her modus operandi. That’s not true. Protection is not limited to legislation. What falls outwith the legislation?”