I'm in Northern Ireland here today for three purposes. Firstly to meet the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) officers who've been on the front line during this disorder. Many of them have been injured and my purpose was to say to them thank you for what they have done. We make big asks of them, they step up and they deserve our thanks.
I've also had the chance to speak to the PSNI senior leadership about the challenges that they face and the support that they need. And then third and very importantly to speak to some of the communities most impacted about the fear that they have the anxiety that they have about the recent disorder.
The disorder is intolerable. It is incapable of justification. It's clearly racist and it does not represent the modern forward-looking Northern Island that I know that this place is.
So I'm very pleased to achieve all those three things today and to work with all communities, to work with PSNI and others, to ensure that we handle this situation, not just the immediate disorder, but also the longer term work that's necessary, to ensure that we have that one Northern Island approach that I know represents the Northern Island, a modern Northern Island of the future.