Speeches by Robinson.

“How long have you been waiting?”

“That is just a little over.”

“1,000 of those applications are from members of the Catholic community.”

“Why?”

“There have been 4,000 applications.”

“Yes.”

“That is good timing. I am going to talk about workforce composition. You will be very well aware that, in the last fortnight or so, there has been renewed focus on workforce composition. I know it is a rather outdated, quaint concept, but, whenever I phone the police, I am not interested in seeing somebody who looks li…”

“It does not sound like political dominance in this case. It sounds like political absence.”

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

“We have had the Sweeney review. We have had the Scoffield judgment in 2023. Mr Justice Scoffield did a quite lengthy review into the Policing Board at your request. You commissioned him to do extensive reviews. Following the review, the Department of Justice has published the independent review to the board, but what a…”

“It was four weeks ago. That is 11 months to get to the Minister’s desk and four weeks to sit on the Minister’s desk, aside from being imminent, which, in political terms, can mean months.”

“I thank the Chancellor for recognising the disproportionate reliance on home heating oil in Northern Ireland, but the £17 million made available for half a million homes reliant on oil equates to £34 per household, and there is no data to target that support. There is £81 million available from the renewables obligatio…”

“Ballymoney this Saturday, Minister.”

“Every case has its own individual elements. Whenever I am given an example of a case in my constituency that is going to have very specific feelings, I ask: are there lessons to be learned for those who have failed, not just locally but also across the nation, so that you can take account of failings and see whether th…”

“This is about role models. I may be stealing somebody’s thunder here—I do not know about prepared questions and all the rest. When we did a visit in Northern Ireland, we went to Larne Football Club. There was this white ribbon campaign and there were some wonderful opportunities to encourage young guys through role mod…”

“Finally, I wonder how granular this becomes, from thinking of a case in my constituency—that of Rachel Simpson, who was murdered by a family member. I am not sure it will come to trial. It could come to trial. Throughout my involvement with the family, before her death and since, it is clear there are a huge number of …”

“Is that in England, Minister, or across all the devolved nations?”

“I know from time that I spent behind the scenes in government that there are joint ministerial committees coming out of the Cabinet Office’s ears, but there is not one on ending violence against women and girls. Do you think that it would be useful to have a ministerial co-ordinating group across the devolved nations, …”

“Was there anything in the Northern Ireland Executive strategy that you thought would not work in England? Are there things that you have decided to proceed with that perhaps the Northern Ireland Executive strategy did not include because they did not have the courage or the work done to proceed?”

“Good morning, Minister. You have mentioned engagement with Northern Ireland officials and I know even personally you have been engaged with colleagues of mine, Carla Lockhart included. The Natalie McNally case going through the courts at the moment has garnered a lot of interest in Northern Ireland and been very topica…”