North’s parties edging closer to sought-after Christmas deal

The five Northern parties urged on by the British and Irish governments late last night appeared to be edging closer to a Christmas deal that could stabilise the Northern Executive and Assembly.

The parties were awaiting "clarification" on a £1.5 billion (€1.9 billion) grants and loan-raising offer from British prime minister David Cameron while they were also seeking to close gaps on issues such as the past, parades and flags.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan, Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs Seán Sherlock and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Theresa Villiers were working with the parties through the night to try to get them over the line on the key disputed issues.

As the talks moved into the early morning senior sources said all the parties remained “focussed and business-like” in their dealings, with Downing Street also maintaining a close interest on whether the financial package would be accepted by the parties.

Aside from the financial haggling two other big issues that were causing late night problems, according to well-placed sources, were parades and how to deal with the issue of unresolved inquests going back to the 1970s including the case of the 11 people killed by the British Parachute Regiment in 1971 in Ballymurphy.

There are some 40 inquests outstanding and the parties were discussing whether these cases could or should be incorporated into a new proposed historical investigations unit to inquire into past killings of the Troubles or whether the resources should be found so that they could be dealt with in the normal coroners’ courts.

The unresolved issue of the blocked Twelfth of July Orange Order parades past the Ardoyne shops in north Belfast and an acceptable replacement for the Parades Commission were also proving contentious last night, sources said.

Nonetheless, the general expectation was that the British and Irish governments and the parties should be able to make the necessary compromises to strike a pre-Christmas agreement.

Key to that happening was the £1.5 billion package put on the table by Mr Cameron via Ms Villiers on Monday morning. The parties had asked for £2 billion to address matters such as the past, public sector reform including redundancies, and improving cross-community relations. Negotiations were continuing to determine if Mr Cameron was prepared to be any more generous.

‘Generous’ offer

Said Ms Villiers of Mr Cameron’s offer, “We did some intensive work over the weekend. We believe that our response is a positive and a generous one.”

She added however: “But it does obviously also have to reflect the constraints we face, the realities of an extremely difficult fiscal situation and, of course, we also need to be fair to the rest of the United Kingdom.”

And she warned: “We can’t go on with this process indefinitely. Right from the start all parties said Christmas is the deadline. If we have not got this sorted by Christmas it is not going to happen.”

First Minister Peter Robinson reflecting the more positive mood said that this time there was "real money on the table" from Mr Cameron. "The devil is in the detail, but at least there is more detail and more money on offer than there was in the previous one," he said.

He added, however, that more information was required from Mr Cameron about his offer.

Sinn Féin negotiator Conor Murphy also acknowledged that this offer was more substantial that the £1 billion offer made last Friday week by Mr Cameron. He said "when you did the actual accounting" of that original offer it in reality only "amounted to £10 million".