Speeches by Robinson.

“So what is the problem?”

“When was that?”

“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%…”

“When do you think you understood that to be the case?”

“Does that not crystalise how there is no political dominance? Within a board of that nature, you will find people grouping together, agreeing with one another, disagreeing and then building a coherent consensus.”

“How long has that been the case?”

“Good morning to you both, gentlemen. Chief Constable, you have had success in this Committee in building support around some of the financial constraints that you face. You have had some success recently, but I would say that it is piecemeal and does not give you long-term sustainability. You had an uplift two years ag…”

“The person asking you questions is one.”

“The board has too. Do the officials have a draft to the Minister?”

“How long were the answers?”

“Thank you, Brendan. That was an important intervention on political dominance, particularly coming from an independent member, so I thank you for it. The board has had more corporate coherence over the last number of years. The board feels less leaky. I do not see regular examples, as I used to, of individuals who are …”

“Have the officials given you any sense as to their delay?”

“Have you been engaging with Ministers or officials on this?”

“The Secretary of State and the Labour Government promised the people of Northern Ireland that they would repeal and replace the legacy Act. They have not. They promised through this two-year extended parliamentary Session that they would deliver legislation that attained support across the community. They have not. The…”

“That is the Policing Board’s review, but there has been silence.”

“Chair, you can follow up on this. It is appalling, when we hear continually about delays in implementation and so on, that the sponsoring Department, and the Department that has responsibility, has not even given a view, after 12 months, on the importance of policing in this review.”

“Sinead, with the greatest respect to you—and you are being diplomatic about this—the Department of Justice breathes down your neck all the time. You are the fall guy for the McCloud judgment. You are the fall guy for injury on duty awards. You are the fall guy for doing all the pension stuff, even though you are not re…”

“The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee has just heard from the chief constable of the PSNI, Jon Boutcher, who indicated that the Secretary of State has put in a claim to the Treasury for additional hundreds of millions of pounds to fund the legacy commission, yet the PSNI has nothing. It has £200 million of civil liabi…”

“You have given courtesy to the Department of Justice, which is seemingly showing no interest whatsoever. Have you spoken to the Justice Minister about this? What has Naomi Long said?”

“It was in Short Strand. I was there.”