Speeches by Robinson.

“Were Electoral Commission observers aware of anybody having turned up at a polling station to find their vote had been cast already?”

“To check with Dr Marshall, your answer was “not to me”. I assume you are speaking on behalf of the Electoral Office when you say “not to me”, and none of your polling captains or anything reported anybody coming up to find that they could not vote because their vote had already been cast.”

“That is from either the elector or a station captain to report at the end of the day.”

“Just to say, Adam, I personally had to remove people from a polling station in Clarawood two years ago. I was the only person from a party there and the electoral staff could not cope with how they were being overrun by people who were just in for vandalism and pure thuggery. I removed them and the police came 20 minut…”

“Very quickly, I think you said, Vijay, that there were double the number of negative experiences for females over males and then there were other factors that you said contributed further. Was that a UK average? Was that a Northern Ireland experience, or is there a difference between Northern Ireland and other parts of…”

“From this Committee’s perspective, it is useful to know whether there was a distinguishing feature. You have mentioned on a couple of occasions now the Speaker’s conference around the experience for candidates. There has been some political consternation—or maybe not as hard as that, but concern—that, when it is being …”

“As it stands, you will give evidence but you have no concerns.”

“Thank you. With no notice, that was helpful and, for the purposes of this inquiry, it would be useful if you could write to us, as I asked Mr Hayes to write to us as well.”

“Good morning, Minster. Morning, gentlemen. Minister, what is your personal involvement in negotiating the new fiscal framework?”

“You are not personally involved in the negotiations overall, but you have personal responsibility for some aspects. Is this a recurring feature in your workload on a weekly basis? Are you engaging regularly on issues around fiscal sustainability in Northern Ireland?”

“When you do that, and you engage with Ministers of Health and Education here in Whitehall who have no departmental responsibility for Northern Ireland, are you doing that in conjunction with devolved elected representatives in Northern Ireland, or are you doing that on your own?”

“Thanks, Neil. I want to come back to you on a spreadsheet question in a moment. Minister, what is your current involvement in and understanding of the progress being made in your negotiations on the fiscal framework and when do you believe those negotiations will conclude?”

“Thank you very much, Minister, and can I thank you for coming to the Committee? The Chief Secretary to the Treasury has yet to accept and has, at this stage, declined. We value the fact that you are willing to talk to us about this issue at this time and, as a Committee, we want to be helpful in that process. Neil, did…”

“Did you see Ciarán Hayes talk about his understanding of the overspend that was accumulated when need was not matched?”

“The suggestion was that, whenever a deal was reached back in December 2023, which then culminated in the interim fiscal framework, the Executive was in the same position as it would have been had need been backdated to the start of the CSR period. My understanding is that that is incorrect. While he is looking at and t…”

“Thank you. With no notice, that was helpful and, for the purposes of this inquiry, it would be useful if you could write to us, as I asked Mr Hayes to write to us as well.”

“Good morning, Minster. Morning, gentlemen. Minister, what is your personal involvement in negotiating the new fiscal framework?”

“You are not personally involved in the negotiations overall, but you have personal responsibility for some aspects. Is this a recurring feature in your workload on a weekly basis? Are you engaging regularly on issues around fiscal sustainability in Northern Ireland?”

“When you do that, and you engage with Ministers of Health and Education here in Whitehall who have no departmental responsibility for Northern Ireland, are you doing that in conjunction with devolved elected representatives in Northern Ireland, or are you doing that on your own?”

“When do you think the negotiations on the fiscal framework will conclude?”