Speeches by Benn.

“On that, you and I will probably disagree. The point I was making is that if you look at the Northern Ireland economy, which is the foundation of the prosperity, it is one of the strongest parts of the UK economy. As you know, economic activity was up 2.9% over the year to quarter three. It has the lowest unemployment.…”

“I will kick off. The stability, notwithstanding the difference of view a moment ago, is an important foundation. I have just given some of the statistics for how the economy in Northern Ireland is faring, which is certainly encouraging. On the funding that I identified in answer to the first question put to me, I shoul…”

“I will respond to that question about the funding, then turn to Matthew on the specific point that you raise about public services transformation. What are the Government doing? First, there is the record settlement that arose out of the spending review last summer—an average of £19.3 billion over the three years. Seco…”

“Matthew brings energy to the task every single day. I got the impression, though, Mr Hoare, that you were talking about the Government of the United Kingdom as a whole, not just in relation to Northern Ireland. I would not accept what you have just said. I suppose my theme for the day is about each of us doing our bit.…”

“I am sure we will.”

“I do not think that is a fair characterisation at all of what the Government have been doing. I set out in answer to the first question put to me today the steps the Government have taken to assist in terms of resources. But nothing—nothing—takes away from the responsibility that the Northern Ireland Executive have wit…”

“I do not accept that argument.”

“I am not sure that I accept the premise of the question because the source of the information that the open-book exercise will be looking at is held by the Northern Ireland Executive today and was held by them last week and last year. There is nothing in there that should come as a surprise to the Executive. I do not a…”

“The information that will come out of the open-book exercise is information that the Government and the Treasury will have that we do not have currently. None of it should come as any surprise to the Executive; it is the Executive’s information. It is the information about the budgets that are held in the different Dep…”

“I am not sure that I quite understand the question because this is about sharing—”

“The aim is to try to conclude it by the end of this month, but we will have to see how it goes.”

“I did not say that.”

“The choice of the Executive if they decide not to put any more money into the economic inactivity programmes would be their choice. It is not just down to the Government.”

“The decision was taken for the reasons that I have identified. I add that when the spending review settlement came through for MHCLG, we managed to get out of it for Northern Ireland the continuation in cash terms of the funding that was available previously. Whereas MHCLG saw a reduction, Northern Ireland, Scotland an…”

“Well, there was the spending review settlement. The funding for the local growth funds came out of MHCLG’s pot. That is what happened. If you look at the rest of the United Kingdom, a lot of money is going into Pride in Place. We had to negotiate to say that, “We don’t want Pride in Place in Northern Ireland; we want t…”

“Look, we have a problem, and the question is, what are we going to do about the problem? I must be frank with the Committee: the 70:30 split is not going to change. As you would expect, as Ministers representing the interests of Northern Ireland, we have done our job. It not going to change.”

“We have met them already. We are meeting them again tomorrow.”

“Matthew is going to respond and then I will come in.”

“Not at all. It was a welcome diversion.”

“As the hon. Member will be aware, the Government announced that the allowance for 100% rate relief will be increased from £1 million to £2.5 million. That means that a couple will now be able to pass on up to £5 million tax-free between them, on top of the existing allowances such as the nil-rate band. The president of…”