Speeches by Hanna.

“I can understand.”

“On that last topic, the allocation is very good news. I warmly welcome it, and have urged the Executive to get moving, and to up their contribution, ideally in line with inflation, because the block grant has increased over the years in which Casement has failed to be built. I was disappointed to see last week, about a…”

“It is worth remembering, of course, that you are retrofitting because the inquiry was announced unilaterally, without that level of internationalisation and engagement with Dublin by the previous Government. I suppose it is backfilling the engagement with Dublin. I am not giving any account of the level of engagement, …”

“We are coming from the same place here, and I can hear your frustration, and I respect that. I respect the people involved in the IRC and their attempt to address this. I believe—and I have set this out directly to them—that there are numerous actions in track one and track two around a societal approach and a criminal…”

“Whether they like it or not.”

“I know we have all seen that map of the island of Ireland, which I shared with the Committee, and we know there is a preponderance of violence in the north in certain counties, but it is across the board, isn’t it? There is no part of Northern Ireland where it is higher or lower. Sonya, can I put that same question to …”

“I do not want to put words in your mouth, but is there an overall high tolerance, or just a prevalence of violence and a macho culture that feeds in to homes and communities?”

“Dr McAlister, have you picked out anything else on that same question from your research?”

“I think we are trying to understand why this is so much more prevalent in our region than elsewhere across these islands. I know this is a big question, but what part does the legacy of the past play in rates of violence against women and girls?”

“Sonya, is there a sense of the funding allocations attached to the ideas and plans in the Executive strategy? We were at Larne FC and we saw a really good project there, which was similar to what you referenced about getting men involved. We were also in Foyle, where they spoke about councils being given a whack of mon…”

“I think we have covered the issue of funding. You are right that it is really good that we have the strategy and that it is across the Executive, but culture eats strategy for breakfast if it is not resourced. Sonya, you have referenced the challenges that Women’s Aid has, even just getting core funding. We know that t…”

“We are really glad you are here to give us those insights. We will pick up on funding issues later.”

“The SDLP’s priority continues to be funding Northern Ireland on the basis of need, and I urge the Government to take focused action, so that we can have sustainable public services and, hopefully, stable politics that will start to deliver for health and education and deal with the squeeze in housing and childcare. I w…”

“Anyone who saw the six-year-old girl fleeing the flaming shelter where her family were killed by an Israeli air strike will carry those horrific images with them forever. These are very dark days. Gaza is a stain on the soul of humanity, and it is a further shame that there is more moral clarity coming from Ms Rachel o…”

“Do we not have good working examples of people taking that balance into account? Would you agree with what the Chief Constable suggested to us—that the judiciary should weigh the balance of national security versus disclosure? Or should there be a regime in which the duty is on the legacy bodies to disclose unless ther…”

“So you have engaged with the security services so far, and you have found that to be positive.”

“In your experience so far, do you have a sense that security services are interested in engaging with you completely and transparently?”

“But you have not given advice, or you have not engaged with the Secretary of State at the NIO on what you think it should look like?”

“I want to come back to disclosure. In September, the Court of Appeal said: “the court cannot itself permit disclosure of any sensitive material where the SOSNI’s”—the Secretary of State’s—"permission has been withheld…Overall…this regime offends against the proper aim of the ICRIR” as an organisation “able to conduct t…”

“I am going to come back to disclosure, but I am aware that colleagues want to get in.”