Former Social Democratic and Labour Party MP for Belfast South
Like many in Northern Ireland, I am saddened that we have come to this impasse which has created the issues we are trying to solve. There are so many problems that need to be faced, but we will not face them or solve them by trading insults or abuse. I will attempt to be as positive as possible and I will avoid that well known pastime in Northern Ireland called whataboutery. I pay tribute to...
The record will show that the right hon. Gentleman referred to a murder in a bar and the only murder in a bar was that of Robert McCartney. I was active politically in criticising both the murder of Jock Davison and the murder of Kevin McGuigan.
I am being heckled here.
We risk getting into whataboutery. In fact, we are probably deeply into whataboutery. I just want to put on the record that at the time I was very critical, publicly and aggressively, of the murder of Robert—
Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Speaker, but allegations were made and I felt that I had to refute them. I will leave it at that and perhaps sort it out with the right hon. Gentleman privately. [Hon. Members: “Ooh!”] We can sort it out over a cup of tea.
I am not a violent man, Madam Deputy Speaker. Moving on, we are in this situation because of a failure to face a new reality. Some may not agree with me, but the difficulties and the fiasco around the renewable heat incentive triggered a sequence of events that spun out of control. People out there want answers and they feel that they deserve them. Many of those who want answers are not...
Name him.
I am not here to represent Sinn Féin, and I do not think I will ever want to be, but is the hon. Gentleman seriously suggesting that all of us should have turned a blind eye to the crisis over the renewable heat initiative and done nothing? To my mind, he ignores the fact that this crisis was triggered by a serious issue of confidence that needs to be dealt with and resolved. Other things...
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to resettle child refugees in (a) the UK and (b) Northern Ireland.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many unaccompanied asylum-seeking children were resettled in Northern Ireland under the Dubs amendment in the last 12 months.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when the Government plans to implement provisions in the Finance Act 2016 to require (a) multinational enterprises and (b) UK subgroups of multinational enterprises to provide annual country-by-country tax reports to HM Revenue and Customs.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will respond to the report from Freedom From Torture, Proving Torture, on its findings on the level of certainty required by her Department for asylum seekers to prove that they have experienced torture.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Written Statement of 21 July 2016, HCWS125, whether his Department has undertaken an assessment of whether the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has committed any breaches of international humanitarian law.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the training module developed for asylum caseworkers has been fully implemented.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Home Office torture evidence assessments were judicially appealed by asylum seekers in 2016; and how many such appeals overturned a Home Office assessment on whether an asylum seeker had experienced torture.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect of the time taken to ratify the Istanbul Convention on women who have experienced domestic, sexual, emotional and financial violence in the last four years.
