Northern Ireland

Stephen Farry Excerpts

Tuesday 13th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Brandon Lewis]

The hon. Lady has strongly and passionately outlined the sense of frustration and tension in Northern Ireland. I have talked to businesses, and whether somebody is nationalist or Unionist, they have seen an impact from the outworkings of the protocol, such as some of the issues that we saw earlier this year. We are working with the business community and civic society across the whole community of Northern Ireland to find sensible solutions.

We would like to work on this with our European partners, but the hon. Lady is right that the actions that we saw, particularly those around article 16, had an acute impact on the sense of frustration, tension and anger across the Unionist community. Thankfully—she is absolutely right about this and we need to be clear about it—the vast majority of people who have that anger are expressing it in the right way: through their politicians, to move things forward in a democratic sense, with dialogue; and through peaceful protests. That is absolutely right. We defend their right to do that and we will continue to engage on that. As she rightly says, that does not at any point ever excuse violence; we need to be very clear about that. We are determined to work through these issues and ensure that the protocol can work for everybody in a sense that is pragmatic and flexible, with free-flowing trade for GB into NI.

[Stephen Farry (North Down) (Alliance) [V]]

I also express my full support for the PSNI, including the Chief Constable. The Secretary of State well knows my views on the importance of a UK-EU veterinary agreement to take the heat out of the protocol. He also directly referred to the need to address deprivation and segregation. In that regard, may I invite him to consider extending his Government’s Fresh Start funding, which is so important for the expansion of integrated education, and to work with his ministerial colleagues to provide urgent clarity on the shared prosperity fund, which is so important for local employability schemes?

[Brandon Lewis]

I am very happy to do that. In fact, we organised a meeting just recently for Executive Ministers and Ministers and officials from Government, including the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, to talk through the schemes—not just the shared prosperity fund but the community renewal fund and others—because there are substantial extra funds available this year for Northern Ireland as we move towards the shared prosperity fund. As I set out earlier, part of the £400 million of new deal money will be focused on work around social fabric and potentially integrated education, and I am really keen to engage to make sure that that money is put into areas where it has the most beneficial impact and is positive for people on the ground in Northern Ireland.