Northern Ireland Budget (Anticipation and Adjustments) (No. 2) Bill

The hon. Lady makes a number of important points, the first being that we have rightly increased ...

I am interested in what the Secretary of State said in response to the hon. Member for North Down...

The additional funding for health and education is partly down to the new money that the Treasury...

My right hon. Friend is right to say that this is not simply a matter of uplifting the amount of ...

We are keen that the Northern Ireland civil service does the necessary work to prepare for the tr...

I am grateful to the Secretary of State for allowing me to intervene for a second time. She has s...

I repeat: the Bill is about putting on a statutory footing the spending that has already taken pl...

I am extremely grateful; it really is very generous of the Secretary of State to give way again. ...

There may be information on certain departmental spending, but, on the total, this is a number th...

I think it would be very useful for the House to have the information that the Secretary of State...

The written ministerial statement sets out the departmental allocations. Those are the moneys tha...

rose—

rose—

I will give way to the hon. Gentleman again, and then I will make progress.

I am not trying to criticise. I am not complaining or saying that the Secretary of State is wrong...

I understand the point the hon. Gentleman makes. He has significant experience in Northern Irelan...

At which point will the Secretary of State accept that this is an entirely unsustainable position...

Of course, there is full scrutiny of the Northern Ireland block grant—that is the estimates proce...

rose—

I will take one final intervention and then I will make some progress.

The Secretary of State is right about the difficulty we are in because Stormont is not sitting, b...

I understand the hon. Gentleman’s concerns, but we have to be aware of the constitutional precede...

rose—

I know the right hon. Gentleman wants to come in, but I want to make some progress, because I am ...

May I record my serious disappointment that in the allocations we are going to approve today ther...

The hon. Lady has raised this issue on several occasions and I know how strongly she feels about ...

May I take the Secretary of State back to where she started, before she began going through the d...

I know how strongly the right hon. Gentleman feels about that point, which he has raised on sever...

When I was over in Northern Ireland recently, I realised to my horror that childcare is not widel...

This is a very technical Bill to put on a statutory footing the moneys that we have already voted...

In Northern Ireland, we have a childcare strategy called Bright Start, and a significant amount o...

As I have said, there is no good alternative for the people of Northern Ireland other than the po...

I was moaning, as usual.

I do not believe that my right hon. Friend is capable of moaning.

On that point—[Laughter.]

As hon. and right hon. Members will note, this is a different process from that which we might or...

May I begin by offering a small prediction that, sadly, there will be very little coverage of thi...

The hon. Gentleman quoted the leader of Sinn Féin’s explanation of situations that had to come ab...

When John Major was engaged in the talks process leading up to the Good Friday agreement, and Ton...

The hon. Gentleman is making an important point. I want to give another example, which is the Bel...

The hon. Gentleman is right. Electricity is fundamental to our way of life. It is not a bolt-on e...

I have listened carefully to what the shadow Secretary of State has said, and he has made some ve...

On the first question, it is very reasonable to ask what happens next. We simply cannot allow thi...

I do not quite understand the point the shadow Secretary of State is making. If a council is fail...

I simply repeat to the right hon. Gentleman that I do not want to see direct rule—I genuinely do ...

As always, I am following all the hon. Gentleman has to say with a great deal of interest. He has...

I am afraid—to give the hon. Gentleman the answer he does not want to hear—that, yes, I think so....

I do appreciate that this is a sensitive point. In saying that, however, does the hon. Gentleman ...

I do understand the difficulties. Let me simply say that this is probably not the right time to p...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way on that point?

Yes, but I do not want to continue this for too long.

It is clear that the hon. Gentleman does not want to talk about this issue, but it is vital, when...

It is rather interesting that the right hon. Gentleman says that I do not want to discuss the iss...

There needs to be a comprehensive settlement, but are we not coming up against the same problem t...

My hon. Friend makes a similar point about the lack of transparency to that which has already bee...

That is absolutely the case. The shadow Secretary of State is absolutely right. The Bill puts on ...

I very much welcome that reassurance. Will the Secretary of State also consider this point? The f...

It is probably helpful if I clarify that point. We have to put on a statutory footing, by the end...

I think the Secretary of State is confirming that this is not an emergency and that the procedure...

I am sorry to intervene on the hon. Gentleman again—he is being very generous with his time—but I...

I am grateful to the Secretary of State for that assurance.

On a different issue, the Secre...

It is worth putting on the record the fact that the last time the British-Irish Intergovernmental...

As the Secretary of State knows, I have asked for the BIIGC to be convened regularly. Back in the...

I welcome the Secretary of State’s hard work over the past several months in trying to resolve th...

My hon. Friend says the Bill is of a technical nature, and I agree in some respects, but ultimate...

My hon. Friend makes a good point. We are in uncharted waters. It is difficult to hold to account...

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that one of the most heartbreaking pressures brought to the attenti...

Yes I very much do, and if the hon. Gentleman wants to attend my Adjournment debate tomorrow on t...

For another year, I rise with a degree of reluctance as we agree a budget that should be debated ...

I know that the hon. Gentleman wants to make an elaborate political point, but he is not a churli...

I do not accept that I am making a cheap point, but I fully accept the hon. Gentleman’s central p...

My hon. Friend is making an excellent contribution. Does he agree that the Secretary of State for...

I could not agree more. The Secretary of State for Scotland’s promises to resign in defence of Sc...

I call Jim Shannon.

5.23 pm

I did not expect to be called first, Madam Deputy Speaker, so you have caught me off balance. [In...

General disappointment has been expressed that, for the third year now, expenditure in Northern I...

As members of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, we hear at first hand, nearly every week no...

The hon. Lady mentioned education. In the year for which we are now finalising the accounts, addi...

It is a pleasure to follow my right hon. Friend the Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson). I am a...

We have heard a wide range of speeches on the Bill, but they have a similar theme. Before enterin...

The hon. Lady mentions her role on the Public Accounts Committee. Does she think that, for as lon...

I understand that the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland are cur...

I commend the hon. Lady for raising the issue of the medical school. Does she agree that there is...

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for making that point. I have not been able to visit that pro...

Let me pick up from where my opposite number, the hon. Member for Bristol South (Karin Smyth), le...

May I repeat what I said earlier? I agree with what the Minister is saying and this is not meant ...

I do take that on board, especially because I think that the hon. Gentleman was one of the last M...

No, I was not.

So I am giving the hon. Gentleman responsibilities that he never had to bear. Let me also mention...

Can I, in all fairness, challenge the Minister on the way he congratulated the hon. Member for Ro...

A number of Members have said today that they would regard it as a last resort. I agree because w...

I am sure I am not the only one who blinked and drew breath when I heard the Minister use the wor...

It was certainly not my intention to cause the hon. Lady to draw breath. The point I was trying t...

In agreeing with the Minister, it is probably worth pointing out that the last period of direct r...

I strongly agree and I think there has been pretty much unanimous agreement across the House duri...

Essentially what the House understood by the Minister’s first remark and his reformulation is tha...

Indeed.

The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) had a long list of local projects that...

On the issue of health transformation, the permanent secretary at the Department of Health has ma...

The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. There is a significant transformation going on, and...

I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. In my remarks, I specifically asked, given the prog...

I shall respond swiftly, as I do not want to hold up the rest of the process. The hon. Lady is ri...