Speeches by Robinson.

“That is another half a billion pounds.”

“Is there enough political awareness about some of the issues that you are going to face down the line on the McCloud judgment, holiday pay and legacy liability? Do you have a global sum that needs to be publicly aired as to what that may mean to future policing budgets?”

“No other part of the justice family has had to do that. Are you getting the support you require from the Justice Minister? There was an issue a few months back with correspondence, and it was quite unseemly from the Department. Are you getting the support you require, or does there need to be a greater way in which you…”

“You fairly outlined some of the budgetary challenges earlier, and you suggested that over a significant period of time your budget has increased by 3%. The Health Department’s budget in the last 10 years has more than doubled. It has increased by almost 150%. The education budget has more than doubled; it went from £1.…”

“Good morning, all. You will find that, over the next series of questions, each of us is going to direct our questions to one individual, so I am not ignoring you, Alan or Graham. Pamela, you had mentioned the impact of lack of resource for policing. You had suggested that you are having to take drastic decisions around…”

“Is that a structural problem within Northern Ireland, or is it a consequence of enforced multi-party coalition Government?”

“Very briefly, on the stabilisation money, Sir Robert, you are right to say that there was an allocation within that £3.3 billion of £1.1 billion for stabilisation money. There was also circa £658 million for immediate pay pressures to meet pay awards. As you know, that is a one-off allocation for pay awards and it is n…”

“Good morning to you all. My first question is a general one: which public services are most in need of improvement? Can you even quantify that or narrow it down? Dorinnia, maybe from your experience you might be able to talk to us about where, in the past, you have seen the greatest deficit in the ability to deliver pu…”

“You started off your answer by saying that you have never had a Department indicate to you that they would not wish to have more money. Fair enough—that is understandable. Have you ever had a Department indicate to you a level of defensiveness that suggests they do not have room for improvement and that they do not acc…”

“Thank you—that is a useful example. Sir Robert, you chair the Northern Ireland Fiscal Council, but you have experience and professionalism born out of knowledge in London and Whitehall and the structures here. In an earlier answer, Dorinnia said that there are deficits not only in funding, but in skills and in capacity…”

“My hon. Friend mentions information that should be shared, and accountability. What about transparency in commissioning? He has raised this issue on a number of occasions over the years. Is he satisfied that there is transparency in the commissioning process? Is there opportunity and fairness in the process, or is ther…”

“Just on succession, Richard, how hard is it to get the older generations to pass their holding to the younger generation?”

“Peter, you talked about some changes that would not be embarrassing for Government and would allow them to limit the impact. Have you had a chance to think, because you think about these issues and write about them quite extensively, whether that would have a material detriment to what the Government have planned to ra…”

“You had a reader in east Belfast at the weekend. That is good going. I hope that this is not an unfair question, but we have talked about the threats, the dangers, the lack of data, and maybe the misunderstanding of Northern Ireland’s perspective over England, Scotland and Wales. Have any of you, over the last number o…”

“If you say that we are getting a more complete picture, although it is bleak, what is absent and yet would be required to give a complete picture? What dataset would it be important to have that we just do not have the ability to review at this stage?”

“That is very helpful. I appreciate it. What is the make-up of Northern Ireland’s farming sector in terms of land value, farm size and ownership?”

“Good afternoon, gentlemen. Peter, you write for the Irish Farmers Journal. You had an article on Saturday the 7th, which I found fascinating. I am going to invite you to explain to Members for the evidence session today. You indicated that HMRC had released clarification on the agricultural property relief, which contr…”

“Peter, your figure there of an average cost per acre for sale for Northern Ireland contrasts with some other figures that we have seen of around £21,000 an acre in Northern Ireland. What is your sense of the reason for the variance even within the average figure?”

“That is helpful, thank you. The DAERA analysis states, “The traditional practice in Northern Ireland is that land on a farm tends to be owned by a single person”. Is there data available to back up that claim?”

“The last time you and I were on a farm, it was a limited company. How prevalent would that be in Northern Ireland agriculture?”