Speeches by Robinson.

“Good afternoon. Apologies for not being with you at the start of the session. Minister Patrick, you mentioned the one-stop shop. It was announced, as you said, in the Budget in 2025. Whenever something is announced in the Budget, that is an indication that the Government are going to allocate money to it. The Chancello…”

“When do you expect there to be an announcement? I assume it will take a year for that to be considered, engaged on with businesses and implemented.”

“No. Was it due to be announced on 22 July?”

“Hang on. It was conceptualised, a business case was put together, a funding package was built around it, and yet there had never been any engagement with business.”

“Can you give us any sense of a timeline on that? We know that the 22 July date has been vacated. There is not going to be an announcement on that day. It seems as if it is all lying in abeyance, yet you still talk of dual market access. You know in your heart of hearts that that does not live up to reality and it does …”

“It will be next year.”

“You have a business case and you have all the concepts put together. You go to the Treasury, it allocates the money and it takes 18 months. We are still talking about a further nine months from today for this to be operational. Most businesses would have closed if they were relying on that level of support. They will b…”

“In fairness, I just want to add a little to what you said about the police funding. You are right about how comparable the amount of money is that Northern Ireland gets alongside the CST. The problem is that that means that it is not additional. It is exactly the same as any police force in the rest of the United Kingd…”

“Thank you. I think you are provoking our curiosity to follow this a bit further.”

“It is okay. It is for Julie.”

“It was back-ended. Do you see any likelihood, as we sit today, almost four or five months into a financial year with no Budget agreed, of those repayments being made?”

“Ms O’Reilly, on the transformation fund, I think you are being kind to the Executive and giving some space for them to work through applications to the fund that would be truly transformative. My big concern about transformation funds is that Departments put in applications for IT or systems refresh, so things that, or…”

“Good morning, Secretary of State.”

“It is interesting to hear you repeat some of the things that I have said to you over quite a long period of time, and I am glad that we are getting somewhere.”

“Good morning to you all. Sir Robert, you will recall back in December 2023 there were discussions at Hillsborough Castle. It is becoming a recurring theme. At that stage, the Government agreed to write off £559 million. There was consternation that they did not backdate that to the start of the CSR period, but a recogn…”

“I agree. Looking at England, 18% of all employees are within the public sector. In Northern Ireland it is 26%. That is only one tension. The other tension is that many of the employees are governed by national pay awards and their negotiating bodies do so on a national basis. The internal tension is that you would reta…”

“The question, Secretary of State, in fairness, is this. Despite healthy scepticism in the past, has the engagement over the last 10 days materialised in a better appreciation and understanding of some of the financial pressures?”

“Thanks, Julie. Secretary of State, you mentioned earlier that it is hard to change political culture. You know, from the time when you were shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, that I indicated to you my concerns around what the Treasury offered Northern Ireland in December 2023. You will know, because I hav…”

“Using the TACO acronym almost makes it seem trivial, but there are structural deficiencies that Government could productively be engaged in trying to fix. It was clear to us, at least in December 2023, that, when Government were writing off £559 million and then giving money to satisfy a pay award, they did so for one …”

“You know, from our engagement already, my position on these things. You know my support for this process. You know how important I believe it to be in suggesting almost nine months ago that it was necessary.”