Máirtín Ó Muilleoir: ...EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), and Members might correct me, provides, I think, around €280 million, and INTERREG provides around €260 million. Without that funding, and without referencing Brexit, we would not be able to deliver the vast majority of the projects that I know you are interested in, for example in rural and border areas. This is our commitment to the kitty, but without...
John O'Dowd: ...with the Programme for Government and our priorities for this society. The other challenge coming down the road at us in relation to the processes for future Budgets set by the Executive is Brexit. No one knows what the outcome of the vote will be next week, but it is already creating uncertainty in terms of investment and potential investment. If the electorate — largely in England,...
Brexit: European Investment Bank Impact
Lord Luce: ...the last few decades? Secondly, will she bear in mind that the current Spanish Foreign Minister, Margallo, has said that although he would like the United Kingdom to stay in the EU, in the event of Brexit he would plan to close the frontier with Gibraltar and revive the original proposals for joint sovereignty over Gibraltar which were overwhelmingly opposed by the people of Gibraltar? Can...
Stephen Farry: ...has a much higher dependence upon European funding for R&D spend than most other regions of the UK, how does the Minister envisage making up the shortfall in research funding in the event of a Brexit? We cannot rely on the UK Government to replicate the level of funding, not least given that the Barnett formula would not essentially cover what we are losing, even if the Government were...
Jim Wells: ...Health to the tune of £200 million extra per year and not find it from somewhere. However, I know from the election that I have just fought that Health is the bread-and-butter issue, apart from Brexit. Of course, the Minister will look forward to spending the extra money that he will get under the Barnett consequentials when we leave the European Union on 23 June. He can look forward...
Kellie Armstrong: .... We know that patching costs 10 times as much as a strategic or planned maintenance schedule. We could then use that plan to source additional funding from the EU — I will not talk about Brexit, thank you. I also believe that many rural roads are shovel-ready today and that, should money become available at short notice, we could be straight in there. I am concerned that the regional...
Deidre Brock: What provisions are the Government putting in place to ensure that non-UK citizens of the EU living here will continue to enjoy the same rights after a possible Brexit vote as they do now?
Jeremy Corbyn: ...be aware that, today, there is a lobby of Parliament by the victims of phone hacking. He said a few years ago that “we all did too much cosying up to Rupert Murdoch”. Well, some of his Tory Brexit colleagues are certainly cosying up to Rupert Murdoch at the moment, but will he give a commitment today that he will meet the victims of press intrusion and assure them that he will keep his...
Lord Liddle: ...move their activities to the legal certainties of the single market would do so because otherwise their boards would be failing in their duty to their shareholders to minimise risk. The logic of a Brexit is that any British-based company whose business is mainly with the European single market would, in the event of a leave vote, substantially reduce its risks by relocating its activities...
John Martin McDonnell: My fear is that if we vote for Brexit we will cut ourselves off from the opportunity of that financial support as well, and that many other companies will move out. It is only courteous to also congratulate the right hon. Gentleman on his 65th birthday today.
Adam Price: ...in exports, proportionally, as the UK experienced in the economic crisis between 2008 and 2009. It’s the equivalent of our current surplus in trade with the EU. Now, I agree with him that Brexit would indeed be a catastrophe for Welsh exports, but what about the catastrophe that has happened under this Government’s own watch? Will he establish an urgent inquiry into the causes of the...
Simon Danczuk: ...institutions. Secondly, I am worried that the college will be squeezed between the bigger beasts that are being created. Although it looks attractive to remain independent—I am not making a Brexit argument in this instance—and it would be positive for the college solely to serve the precise needs of Rochdale, the truth is that the larger establishments will have better and bigger...
Dawn Bowden: ...regulations and equal treatment for temporary, agency and part-time staff, including access to pensions, which, incidentally, we had to fight for through the European courts. Many voices in the Brexit camp see these minimum standards as so-called red tape or costs to business. We are told that, if the UK could remove these minimum standards, then things would somehow and magically improve...
Lord Horam: ...sort of detailed problem that we somehow forget when we talk about international migration. En passant, that makes me suspicious of the rather glib solution of the Australian points system that the Brexit people have come out with recently. How is it right for us to take the people we need and totally ignore the requirements of the originating country? That cannot be morally correct. Apart...
Stephen Farry: My question is also on Europe. Given that the First Minister is the only leader or co-leader of any devolved Administration in these islands who advocates a Brexit, will she relay whether concerns were expressed by the Scottish or Welsh First Ministers or an Taoiseach about the implications of a Brexit for collaboration between the regions of the British Isles, particularly the creation of...
Brexit: Payment of Farm Subsidies
Máirtín Ó Muilleoir: Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabhail leis an Chomhalta as a cheist. I thank the Member for his mischievous question. As Minister, I am not allowed to speak on Brexit, so I will not. However, as an individual, I have told you where I would like to be and what I hope to wake up to on Friday morning. If you really believe — I suspect that you do not — that the Tories introduced air...
John O'Dowd: Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. Thank you, Minister, for your answers. What is on the agenda for your meetings with the Minister? I assume that you will meet him after the Brexit vote, which may or may not change the agenda for the meeting. There are certainly major issues of common concern and opportunity between the two jurisdictions. Will you outline what your agenda will be?
Máirtín Ó Muilleoir: ...1·2 billion. I know that the Member has great faith in Westminster. I am not entirely sure why. If I were a betting man, I would not bet on our friends in the Treasury being as generous post-Brexit if that were to happen — please God, it does not — as they are letting on. Yes, the Peace programme is coming to an end. I think that 2021 will see the end of Peace IV. We need to...