Speeches by Patrick.

“On the individual deals that have been signed, city and growth deals—some are still being developed as well—I am sure that there will be metrics that people have for success of those.”

“I am not in charge of individual deals. We have co-funded. We collaborate with the Executive. That is really important work. It is clear that you want to see businesses have more opportunities. You want to see better employment opportunities, better-paid jobs and more jobs. These are clearly things we would like to see…”

“There are shared ambitions. It is really important that we have economic growth in Northern Ireland. There are huge positives in the economy. We need to build on them. We need to remove other barriers and build on them. They are shared ambitions, whether you are in UK Government or the Northern Ireland Executive. It is…”

“We have not specifically said, “This metric has to be at this level or this will not have been achieved”. I mentioned city and growth deals. There is a real opportunity to measure the outputs of the defence growth deal as well, and clearly that will be in the jobs created, the businesses saved, the businesses created a…”

“All of us. Everyone who is committed to growth in Northern Ireland will naturally be judged on those. You cannot set metrics that are not applicable to and recognised by people. If every single person I speak to is asking, “Has economic growth been successful?”, they are going to be thinking, “Are there good, well-payi…”

“We will always be seeking that. There is a huge amount of engagement that goes into the city and growth deals. Take the transformation board we were talking about before. There is not an expectation that the money goes in and we walk away and think, “I hope that worked”. Of course, you pore over every single penny of p…”

“She is on the transformation board.”

“She chairs the Northern Ireland growth co-ordination group, but I might have misspoken, so apologies.”

“The Executive hear that really clearly. I regularly do business roundtables. I sit down with small businesses. I do chambers of commerce. In Derry/Londonderry, I did the angel investors as well. You hear right across the board in Northern Ireland about this, and I know it is a well-rehearsed concern that the Executive …”

“We do.”

“It was established about a year ago. Clearly, you have to establish this and get things up and running, but what it is focusing on are some really important issues in Northern Ireland. The discrepancy in access to research and development funding in Northern Ireland will not be lost to this Committee. I hear it in busi…”

“It has met four times. It is meeting again pretty soon, and the plan is to meet bi-monthly.”

“The work that falls out of that is taken forward by officials. The issue that I mentioned earlier about research and development is a prime example. On the back of conversations that we have been having, it has been raised in that group. Simultaneously, we have been raising that with UK Government Ministers and Norther…”

“I meet with them regularly. I have sat down with the Minister for Infrastructure. I have spoken to all of them about this. It has been very helpful to have those conversations. We talked before about public service transformation as well. You cannot have one without the other. They go hand in hand in terms of being abl…”

“Somewhere in my pack I will, but, to save the Committee time through me rifling through papers, am I okay to write to the Committee with those dates?”

“I know that the first meeting was May last year, but I do not know the other dates off the top of my head. I apologise.”

“My hon. Friend is a powerful campaigner on this issue. The Secretary of State and I recognise the importance of fishing industries across the United Kingdom, and the Secretary of State visited Kilkeel earlier this year with Minister Muir, where this topic was raised. Immigration changes are designed to ensure that our …”

“As the hon. Gentleman will know, we totally support our fishing sector, and I am interested to hear more about that proposal. If the Immigration Minister is speaking with the hon. Gentleman and my hon. Friend the Member for Scarborough and Whitby, I will, of course, try to be part of those meetings to hear whatever I c…”

“As I have said, we have written to the Home Secretary about these issues, and I am sure that my hon. Friend will be making her case very powerfully as well. It is our duty to work with businesses across the UK to ensure that they are ready for these changes. We want our fishing industry to thrive, and we want people he…”

“I worry that the hon. and learned Member is in danger of talking down Northern Ireland and its incredible business opportunities. We are here to champion it. If issues arise from the Brexit that he and others championed, we do our very best to ensure that trades flow smoothly.”