Speeches by Hanna.

“You said “where they are working”. I do not know whether this is appropriate, but can you point to a PCSP somewhere that is an example of good practice? I am not trying to put you on the spot, because my analysis of them—and I have served on one—is not a million miles away from that. Is there one that is working well?”

“Are there mechanisms and tools that we are not deploying or have not legislated for within our current competence?”

“Thank you. We are going to get the expert in at some point.”

“The decision has been made, and I am now trying to engage. If we are doing this, let us do it as well as possible. Jonny, what criminal justice mechanisms are left undelivered by the Northern Ireland Assembly? Again, we probably do not have enough time, or wine, to get into all those issues about the space vacated, but…”

“Residue and remnants will be left and will fill the space.”

“In summary, there are individuals who might want to have this part of their life written off, but the structures, the organisations and the concepts are not going to disappear.”

“You will know that the two Governments recently appointed an independent expert to scope paramilitary group transition to disbandment. I want to ask for your views on this. Are we doing enough within the current criminal justice system? There is the narrative of, “Oh, jeez, nothing else has worked. We will have to pay …”

“Yes, that is entirely the point that it makes.”

“Marie, is there anything that you wanted to add to that, specifically on that concept of shock absorbing and the police having to address political failures?”

“FICT is a big commission to try to address issues around markers of identity such as flags, emblems and murals. Basically, we have left it on a shelf and not implemented it. Something like that, as well as guidance around flag flying and paramilitary emblems, would make the police’s job a lot easier.”

“We are moving into failings that are not related to legacy issues, such as gender-based issues. You rightly use the term “shock absorbers” and spoke about the PSNI having to, essentially, police our way out of political failures. Can you expand a bit on that and how you might bridge the disconnect?”

“For what it is worth, we do not want a whole external thing. We do not want to start again and rebuild, but there is a vacuum of political leadership in terms of people just watching the confidence ebb away and not doing anything about it.”

“Like others, I was delighted to see in the Budget the pre-1997 indexing. The Minister will know that that softens but does not correct a wrong, and it leaves tens of thousands of former employees of Harland & Wolff and Visteon, including my constituents, without indexation. New clauses 28 and 29, in my name, would …”

“Conversations about a new Ireland are deepening, with people from all sorts of backgrounds having serious, hopeful discussions about building something new. Yesterday in Westminster, along with the hon. Member for South Antrim (Robin Swann), who has a different view to me, we hosted two of the island’s most respected j…”

“Robert, do you have anything to add? What would you like to see in the action plan for the enhanced investment zone?”

“Paul, did you want to add something to that? Can you briefly touch on what you are doing on a cross-border basis? You have some stuff at Letterkenny, do you?”

“That is not how it works.”

“Yes, it was a triple. You can do it.”

“David, if you want to come in on that, please do, but, in the interests of time, I wanted to ask you about city deals. My colleague and a predecessor here, Mark Durkan, was the early champion of those. He saw them as a way to co-ordinate the extra investment that does not come through the devolved channels. How are the…”

“Stuart, do you want to come in? I am going to come back with specific questions for David.”