Speeches by Hanna.

“You think it has the capacity to do that. I do not know which member you are referring to.”

“You think it has the capacity to promote to businesses in Britain the ease, viability and advantages of trading east-west. That is great. What issues have you received advice from them on?”

“One of the items that we discussed with Baroness Foster was the lack of understanding from businesses in Britain about how they should and could trade. We recommended that you appoint a GB representative. Do you plan to do so?”

“Minister, I will pick up with you again. You are correct to identify that businesses want to be able to trade north, south, east and west without friction. We met both InterTradeIreland and Intertrade UK, and I wanted to ask you about the latter. In your response, you endorsed our view that Intertrade UK has the potent…”

““East-west trade” is a very broad concept. What do you mean specifically? What did they advise you on that you did not already know?”

“When?”

“We anticipated this scenario, I think, the last time you were before us, Secretary of State, in that, without a change to either the settlement or the political culture, we would end up with a stalemate, a dramatic gathering at Hillsborough and a stalemate again. We are used to shambolic Budget processes, but you are c…”

“Colleagues will get into the Budget process and that system of advances and extra money. Are there ways that you think the UK Government should try to incentivise that political appetite for hard decisions that you talked about? Have you any thoughts about Stormont reform or changes to how strand 1 operates that might …”

“Some of the analysis that we have been looking at and some of the evidence in our last session was that, if you include all the additional packages, emergency moneys and restoration deals, that has brought the Executive up to a level of need. Is that part of the advice that you will be giving the new Prime Minister abo…”

“Some of the analysis that we have been looking at and some of the evidence in our last session was that, if you include all the additional packages, emergency moneys and restoration deals, that has brought the Executive up to a level of need. Is that part of the advice that you will be giving the new Prime Minister abo…”

“I think we heard that the transformation fund was underspent. Is that the case?”

“I think we heard that the transformation fund was underspent. Is that the case?”

“We certainly will. Your report also suggested that there was little public appetite to seize the opportunity of a multi-year Budget for reform and revenue raising. What sort of decisions could the Budget have taken but did not, in your view?”

“The Finance Minister himself has since disavowed his Budget, and I know his colleagues have said that it could not have worked for them, but he presented it as transformative a few months ago. You said that it balances on paper, but that that is unlikely to be how it would unfold. Why is that?”

“We anticipated this scenario, I think, the last time you were before us, Secretary of State, in that, without a change to either the settlement or the political culture, we would end up with a stalemate, a dramatic gathering at Hillsborough and a stalemate again. We are used to shambolic Budget processes, but you are c…”

“The Finance Minister himself has since disavowed his Budget, and I know his colleagues have said that it could not have worked for them, but he presented it as transformative a few months ago. You said that it balances on paper, but that that is unlikely to be how it would unfold. Why is that?”

“We certainly will. Your report also suggested that there was little public appetite to seize the opportunity of a multi-year Budget for reform and revenue raising. What sort of decisions could the Budget have taken but did not, in your view?”

“Colleagues will get into the Budget process and that system of advances and extra money. Are there ways that you think the UK Government should try to incentivise that political appetite for hard decisions that you talked about? Have you any thoughts about Stormont reform or changes to how strand 1 operates that might …”

“Community cohesion is deeply threatened by the violence and menace that took place on the streets last month, which included deliberate orchestration and paramilitary flags and trappings that now fly as bold as brass from lampposts in my constituency and in many others. We can no longer pretend that loyalist paramilita…”

“I will finish on this. You have said, “Of course there are great ideas and great action,” but that is reactive. There is no proactive strategy to address and prevent those issues, despite the fact that we have had three years of deliberate waves of racist violence. I will leave you with one point that you must see in a…”