Northern Secretary wants talks to start next Thursday

Talks aimed at resolving the political logjam threatening the Stormont institutions are due to begin next week, the Northern Secretary Theresa Villiers said tonight.

Ms Villiers said she hoped the negotiations involving the five main Northern parties as well as the British and Irish governments could start next Thursday.

“The parties have received an indication that I would like to see things start next Thursday but nothing is finally decided, but certainly I would hope that we can make a start on this process next week,” she said.

The talks would take place at Parliament Buildings, Stormont and she hoped “a couple of days” would be put aside each week for the negotiations.

Ms Villiers said she will chair most of the sessions of the talks which with a British general election to be held next May have an effective pre-Christmas deadline. The talks are expected to cover issues such as the past, flags and parades and welfare reform.

The Northern Secretary told the BBC's programme The View that the Irish Government would be involved in matters relevant to Dublin while she expected that the US administration would offer a supportive and advisory role.

Meanwhile, the Northern Executive last night voted to accept a one-off loan of £100 million (€127 million) from the British Treasury to help the various Stormont departments deal with their funding shortfalls.

Up to the end of next April the Executive is facing an overspend of up £220 million with £87 million of that figure coming from fines imposed by the British Treasury for Stormont’s failure to sign up to British welfare reform. Sinn Féin has used its veto within the Executive to block attempts by unionist and Alliance Ministers to adopt the welfare change.

The North's DUP Finance Minister Simon Hamilton and First Minister Peter Robinson had sought a loan from British chancellor George Osborne of up to £150 million to temporarily allow the Executive get over its budgetary problems, with a figure of £100 million agreed. This loan however would have to be repaid next year which would reduce the 2015-2016 budget by £100 million.

The Executive also agreed additional allocations of £60 million to the Department of Health and £29 million to the Department of Justice. Finance Minister Mr Hamilton will make a statement on Stormont's budgetary crisis in the Assembly next week.