Speeches by Hoare.

“Just on that, are you persuaded by the timeliness of real‑time monitoring? When one overlays the increased rainfall as a result of climate change on top, for example, will the triaging be reliable? My anxiety is that it is always going to be a little bit passive.”

“It needs to be preventative and precautionary, effectively.”

“Yes. Apologies if that was not clear.”

“Can I try to inject a little bit of realistic realpolitik into this? The system that went before, with inquests, some liked and some loathed. Quite a lot of that liking or loathing was determined by whether they found the outcomes palatable or not, and the timeliness with which they were accessed. The trigger—no pun in…”

“I am always endorsed by the fact that Mr Robinson thinks I have talked nonsense. There must be a kernel of truth in what I have said.”

“But pursuance of the inquest system is not a drawing of the line; it is just resorting to what we have had in the past. That is not drawing a line. That is not pulling the curtains and saying, “Let’s just forget about it.” It is just using the inquest system and not trying to create anything new. That is not drawing a …”

“It has increased to a week now, has it?”

“It will be no more expensive than anything else that is proposed to come forward in the round. Let us be absolutely frank. And what price justice?”

“Inadvertently misleading.”

“It is the incompetent competent authority.”

“It is a work of fiction, Gavin.”

“Can I probe? I entirely take the point about the disruption of the general election and the dust settling and so on, but how often has the working group met? I took away from your first answer to my question that it is intending to meet but has not.”

“Is that principally targeted to nurseries?”

“I have two short questions, both to Ms Pheasey. The first is on the plant health label scheme. The Committee will make some recommendations and observations back to Government, based on what we hear during these sessions. What two improvements would you like to see that would make it operate better?”

“Rest assured that Northern Ireland is never forgotten about. Chair, can I turn to dual market access? Back in the day, many of us trumpeted this as a unique proposition which, if exploited and understood well, could deliver some significant benefit. Has business benefited from that dual access, or is it a process?”

“On that wider point, you have mentioned HMRC and that slight change of approach. What are you picking up as the stock answer, if you will, from HMG? Is it, “We are having evolutionary discussions about the next steps with the EU so just bide your time,” or, “We going to pat our head and rub our tummies at the same time…”

“Has there been any sort of rejigging of the supply chain in terms of transport logistics in order to try to ameliorate that?”

“Can we explore those concerns a little bit? Are they concerns for the future? Are they concerns now? Are you able to identify certain strands where the concerns around availability are manifesting themselves, or where they fear they may?”

“Ms Murphy, this question may be specific to you. What, if any, have been the main benefits or challenges reported by consumers in Northern Ireland in relation to the framework?”

“When did he know?”