Speeches by Benn.

“We stood together—Tánaiste Simon Harris and myself—at Hillsborough on 19 September. I made commitments on behalf of the British Government; he made commitments on behalf of the Irish Government. I have no doubt at all that the Irish Government will honour its commitments. We have already demonstrated, with the publicat…”

“Always. Q126   Katrina Murray: The answer that you have given, Ms Johnson, is very helpful, because I particularly want to look at the real-life situation. Secretary of State, I think that every time you have come to this Committee to talk about the work of the Department, you have been asked a question about…”

“Fleur, I am going to turn to you at this point.”

“That is a very important question. As you will be aware, the ICIR was the subject of the last agreement that was reached between the UK and Irish Governments back in 2014 in Stormont House. What is the purpose of the ICIR? It is to say: might there be another means by which people are prepared to come forward and say w…”

“It is not a game—it is really practical, in order to bring relief to the people of Northern Ireland.”

“And I didn’t. I was very careful not to say that everything was rosy, because in my preamble I accepted producing those statistics. I entirely get why businesses say, “Well, why are we having to march further up the regulatory hill, when we can see the promised land of the SPS agreement beckoning from the distance?” It…”

“There are a number of questions there. I met it last at the East-West Council, and I met individual members—Roger Pollen, for example—when I met the FSB recently. It was presenting its work programme to the East-West Council. I am grateful to all the members for agreeing to take on this task; they have a very important…”

“Businesses decide where they buy from and where they sell to. It is certainly not my understanding of the operation of the Windsor framework that there is a role for anyone else to tell businesses where they should buy from or to whom they should sell their goods. Is there?”

“I am not sure I understand the question.”

“I did indeed, and that is exactly what they said too. There is clear evidence that there are businesses in Northern Ireland that absolutely get the benefit that comes from having dual market access. I think it is all of our responsibility to promote that and to generate the understanding. In my experience, businesses w…”

“I think that the example I have just alluded to is not an example of ineffectiveness. There are people in Northern Ireland who are very unhappy about the decision that I took in relation to that particular application, but I have legal obligations; I followed them to the letter. That does not mean it does not work.”

“Sorry, just say that again. His review point being that some people—”

“But that shows that the democratic scrutiny mechanism worked—that is exactly my point.”

“He heard that from some of the people he spoke to, indeed, but if you take the example of the Stormont brake, about which a lot of views have been expressed, there has been one pulling of the brake. In those circumstances, the Secretary of State has a legal obligation to consider that decision against specific criteria…”

“My understanding is that the Assembly is looking at the same pile of legislation that is coming our way as we are looking at, and it is open to them to discuss that legislation and to request the explanatory memoranda. They can consider it; it is entirely a matter for them. Of course, we will give careful consideration…”

“My understanding, on the non-agricultural geographical indicators, is that there was an applicability motion considered by the Assembly. We then spent a year looking at it, because the issue was, “Is this going to create a regulatory border?” That is the most important test that we have to apply. We spent a year doing …”

“Well, in the case of the non-agricultural—”

“No, it is indeed impressive. Did you say agricultural geographical indicators or non-agricultural—”

“Which are the three you are referring to?”

“When you say only two were put—”