TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen and British prime minister Gordon Brown were flying to Northern Ireland this morning to ratify a deal to break the political deadlock on policing, justice and parading.
The Taoiseach and British prime minister decided to return to Hillsborough today after the DUP Assembly team shortly before midnight agreed to accept the deal that was negotiated over 10 days of tortuous talks.
DUP leader Peter Robinson, who was reinstated as First Minister on Wednesday, succeeded in persuading his 34-member Assembly grouping to back both him and the deal.
On Monday, up to 14 of the DUP’s 34-member Assembly parliamentary group rejected the deal. But late last night, Mr Robinson convinced the Assembly team to unanimously back the deal, negotiated mainly between Sinn Féin and the DUP.
“They have unanimously supported the way forward,” Mr Robinson told the press at Parliament Buildings, Stormont after he had met his Assembly team for almost two hours last night.
He said of the deal: “Everyone present believes it is consistent with our election manifesto and with the pledges we have made to the people. We look forward to going to Hillsborough [today] where the document should be published.”
The Taoiseach and prime minister are expected at Hillsborough Castle this morning to formally ratify the deal.
Both Mr Cowen and Mr Brown were engaged at critical stages of the negotiations, while the Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin and Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward were involved in virtually all of the marathon talks, which began last Monday week.
This deal now clears the way for the transfer of policing and justice powers to the Northern Executive. This is due to happen in early April with an expectation that Alliance leader David Ford will be appointed the North’s Minister for Justice.
The talks had been log-jammed over policing and parading, but over the final period of the negotiations the DUP acccepted a date for the transfer of policing powers while Sinn Féin signed up to changes in how contentious parades are handled.
Members of the DUP Assembly group started gathering at Parliament Buildings, Stormont, shortly before 10 pm last night for the critical meeting.
They included the former first minister, the Rev Ian Paisley, and his son Ian, the former acting first minister, Arlene Foster and Assembly members such as Jim Wells and David Hilditch.
They made no substantial comment on their way into the meeting. One of the 30 or so MLAs said he was merely there “to clean my office” and queried how The Irish Times knew of the meeting.
Despite the reticence, there was developing confidence at that stage that Mr Robinson would be able to bring the vast bulk of the party with him, notwithstanding the fact that 14 of the MLAs voted against the deal on Monday.
Much of that confidence was built around the fact that earlier last night the most powerful of the DUP hardliners, deputy leader Nigel Dodds and east Derry MP Gregory Campbell, joined Mr Robinson in talks at Hillsborough with Mr Woodward.
Initially, it was provisionally agreed that policing and justice would be transferred to the Executive in early May but, sources said, due to DUP concerns about selling the merits of this transfer of powers in the teeth of a British general election, that date had been brought forward to early April.
Responding to the DUP’s support for a deal, Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister said last night: “The deal the DUP so meekly accepted tonight is the same deal they rejected on Monday. The deal hasn’t changed, only the snowmen of the DUP who melted once the heat came on.”