Speeches by Robinson.

“The Secretary of State and the Labour Government promised the people of Northern Ireland that they would repeal and replace the legacy Act. They have not. They promised through this two-year extended parliamentary Session that they would deliver legislation that attained support across the community. They have not. The…”

“This is an important thread. One of the reasons for pushing back earlier is that it is important that we identify where the problems lie. My support for policing is almost unconscious. For people from my community, for Ulster Unionist people and Alliance too, it is unconscious. The SDLP, in many ways, has shown extraor…”

“Has every leader met you since you asked to see them at the start of the year?”

“That is the Policing Board’s review, but there has been silence.”

“I can understand why you do not want to get dragged into a scrap. If I heard my Minister on the radio saying that they would pursue a business case and find the resources if the evidence was there—do you think there has been a challenge in providing the evidence for policing?”

“Chair, you can follow up on this. It is appalling, when we hear continually about delays in implementation and so on, that the sponsoring Department, and the Department that has responsibility, has not even given a view, after 12 months, on the importance of policing in this review.”

“So what is the problem?”

“The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee has just heard from the chief constable of the PSNI, Jon Boutcher, who indicated that the Secretary of State has put in a claim to the Treasury for additional hundreds of millions of pounds to fund the legacy commission, yet the PSNI has nothing. It has £200 million of civil liabi…”

“Sinead, with the greatest respect to you—and you are being diplomatic about this—the Department of Justice breathes down your neck all the time. You are the fall guy for the McCloud judgment. You are the fall guy for injury on duty awards. You are the fall guy for doing all the pension stuff, even though you are not re…”

“That is not right. We are going to come back to this question later in this session, but that is not right. It is right in part, but I am not going to take any criticism of our support for policing, because you know exactly where we stand.”

“You have given courtesy to the Department of Justice, which is seemingly showing no interest whatsoever. Have you spoken to the Justice Minister about this? What has Naomi Long said?”

“Good morning to you both, gentlemen. Chief Constable, you have had success in this Committee in building support around some of the financial constraints that you face. You have had some success recently, but I would say that it is piecemeal and does not give you long-term sustainability. You had an uplift two years ag…”

“It was in Short Strand. I was there.”

“You have told me before when we met that there is a legacy liability. Before you get into staffing requirements, there are legacy liability costs sitting there of circa £200 million. At that time, you were saying that there were eight inquests and about 150 to 160 legacy cases. If the legacy commission gets going, ther…”

“The Department of Justice knows the importance of policing, community involvement in policing, and community support for and trust in policing. It knows that the review was commissioned. It even published the outcome of the review, but it has not given a view in 12 months.”

“I was in one of them.”

“I get the point you are making, and I understand the complexity. I can be political about what I say, and you will not. I get all of that, but all it took was for a member of your Policing Board to condemn a bomb scare and to condemn dissident republicans who are trying to create the atmosphere that precludes young mem…”

“Yes, but it is not a case of “found wanting”. Finally from me, do you have a sense of comparative figures for England and Wales? Do you know that the Treasury is likely to indicate that, while Northern Ireland is funded at £1.24 for every £1 per head spent in England, for policing in Northern Ireland it is £1.60 or 60%…”

“Yesterday, Deirdre Hargey of Sinn Féin was asked, on the BBC, if a young person from her community came to her and said they wished to pursue a career in the PSNI, whether she would support them. Her response was that, if that is what they want to do, that is okay. I understand that this is uncomfortable when it is a m…”

“For 400 vacancies, applications from the Catholic community are more than 150% over that. That is a good thing. The reason why I am bringing it out is because it has been absent from the discourse. It would sound as if only a quarter of available positions can be filled by Catholics. Actually, more than 1,000 individua…”