Speeches by Robinson.

“That brings me to a point I think you were trying to open up earlier, which is what Government can do and the outlier impact. You say “outlier”; a number of European countries have brought forward support packages, for example. Hauliers have been the beneficiary. Agriculture has been a beneficiary of that. Consumers ha…”

“Sadly, it is required. Pat, this is required only because people at the front end of the process are suffering, and people in fuel poverty suffer exponentially more. Are you concerned about the sorts of practices that you hear of, with consumers being told they are going to have a reduced price, but then having signifi…”

“If Robin does not mind, could I just follow up on that? I was interested to hear you, John, mention recoupling with the GB market and proceeding with the interconnector, so it is not an either/or.”

“I spoke to a taxi driver last week who just indicated to me that personally, as a self-employed person, he was spending £500 more per month to keep his car on the road. One of my colleagues was speaking to a gentleman who was delivering animal feed as a haulier, and he said their small firm operating in Tyrone was payi…”

“Given that we are talking about fuel poverty, and John has mentioned regulation, it would be a good opportunity to raise a case from my constituency that I raised with John about four or five weeks ago, where SSE wrote to a customer and indicated that the price of gas would drop by 8.1%. Two weeks later, it wrote a let…”

“Do you sanction suppliers? Do you have that within your power as a regulator? Have you done it in the past?”

“They are two separate things, but they are compatible.”

“John, this is the reason why you are here today. Could your office regulate the oil industry? Would there be an associated benefit to that, or would it be unduly burdensome?”

“How important was it for your members to hear the Agriculture Minister on the radio last Tuesday encouragingly say that there was £236 million available to support with this crisis?”

“Do you mean that it is not available?”

“It is important that we know that engagement is happening. Thank you. William, what engagement have you had?”

“Just to be clear, the announcement that was made last Tuesday is not an announcement at all.”

“They are not mutually exclusive. It is a political decision, then, to be agreed between UK Government and the European Union.”

“I will support the hon. Gentleman’s request for us to back the amendment and not disagree with it, as the Government have asked, although I could easily be convinced that Governments should be making these decisions themselves, rather than Parliament making decisions on proscription or otherwise. Does he think that in …”

“The Prime Minister knows he is the main character in an ongoing national scandal. Given all the blame apportioned in his statement, it is incredible that only one person has lost their position. Does the Prime Minister also recognise that it is incredible to learn that in Northern Ireland a political appointment was ma…”

“Yes, but it is not a case of “found wanting”. Finally from me, do you have a sense of comparative figures for England and Wales? Do you know that the Treasury is likely to indicate that, while Northern Ireland is funded at £1.24 for every £1 per head spent in England, for policing in Northern Ireland it is £1.60 or 60%…”

“Just at the end of January, so three weeks.”

“The person asking you questions is one.”

“Brendan, you might have to give a precis as to what actually happened—Simon Byrne and Ormeau Road and so on—because I am not sure there is awareness.”

“When was that?”