Speeches by Robinson.

“I will answer your question. I think it is important that if you are interested in the views of the DUP, then you hear them, rather than hear what you wish to.”

“I am making the point to you, and you can accept it or not, that somebody wishing to change the law may wish to engage with colleagues, reach consensus and understand why there is resistance and, furthermore, challenge the attitude that infected this process, because a decision seemed to be reached that would get a maj…”

“I have given you an answer not only once but twice now. If it is about strand 1, you cannot just cherry-pick. I have heard witnesses today suggest that they could improve the world if you change the designation of First Minister and Deputy First Minister, but I am suggesting to you, first, that that is fanciful; second…”

“There is no consensus that reform should happen. When you say that, you just confirm your majoritarian—”

“I can only answer the question in the same way that I already have. I do not believe that we can deal with these aspects singularly. You have raised one singular aspect. You have some parties that will push that; you will have some parties that will move others. I think we need a more considered way of dealing with the…”

“When I sat on Belfast city council, it used to be that 95% of everything we did was agreed, unseen and unheard, and the 5% that anyone talked about was the disagreements. That is sometimes true of the Executive as well. We stood on a manifesto pledge of delivering £1 billion for health, and we did it in the first two y…”

“Good morning, Chair; thank you for having me. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to give evidence to the Committee and for completing a bit of parliamentary trivia, as I am the first member of a Committee to give evidence twice over a decade. We have achieved something at least.”

“I think about some of the reflections of the witnesses already. It is all too easy to forget that in Northern Ireland, we have an important system of government and a Government of necessity. If you were to compare and contrast it with Westminster, you would have a Cabinet with Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal De…”

“First, I question that the good will is there. The lack of delivery that we have seen comes out of a lack of willingness to constructively work together or to recognise that the fact that we have a system that has protections built within it, but that should lead to engagement, consensus and agreement about what can be…”

“I have given you an answer not only once but twice now. If it is about strand 1, you cannot just cherry-pick. I have heard witnesses today suggest that they could improve the world if you change the designation of First Minister and Deputy First Minister, but I am suggesting to you, first, that that is fanciful; second…”

“I think I gave you an option. It is not an aspect of reform necessarily, but I believe it would be useful to have a coalition agreement in advance of an Executive being established. I think you can construct such a thing through agreement when you see manifestos in advance of elections. I understand that you will be en…”

“There is no consensus that reform should happen. When you say that, you just confirm your majoritarian—”

“I have already answered. This process is engaged with the Assembly and Executive Review Committee, and that process should continue.”

“My response to that is twofold, Chair. The first is that it will make no practical, material difference to the litany of issues that Jon Burrows outlined. It will not deliver water infrastructure in Ahoghill, so I think you need to be very careful about why it is being asked for. My second response is that we cannot ha…”

“As you know, a Budget can be singular, or it can be annual. At the moment, it is outrageous that we do not have one at all. I am not sure that it is a constraint that is necessary, in this instance. You will have manifestos from each party. Some will be in the future Executive and some may not be, but you will know wha…”

“No, I am sorry, Ms Hanna, but you have just confirmed your majoritarian approach to this.”

“There is no refusal, because I started my answer by saying that these things cannot be dealt with in an à la carte way. That is my answer. My answer is that if you are going to have a discussion—”

“Well, I have, and you have to hear, rather than assume.”

“You have to hear, rather than assume.”

“In the past.”