End of week deadline for Northern Ireland tax agreement

Politicians in Northern Ireland have until the end of this week to reach a deal if legislation devolving corporation tax powers to Stormont is to be put through Westminster before next May's UK general election, NI Secretary of State Theresa Villiers has said.

Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness will meet British prime minister David Cameron in Downing Street on Monday, along with colleagues from Scotland and Wales.

The collapse of Friday’s talks is not on the agenda, however, but both Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness are expected to repeat criticisms they share that the money offered by Mr Cameron is insufficient to protect NI public spending.

Ms Villiers said: “It’s not completely impossible that corporation tax could still be achieved in this parliament, with a later introduction after this week, but it becomes increasingly difficult.”

She hinted there could be limited extra funds from London if Sinn Féin accepted NI’s welfare budget being cut, saying “there is no question of additional finance without an agreement between the parties”.’

‘Citizens’ rights’

Refusing to accept the need for cuts, Sinn Féin’s Declan Kearney said: “Sinn Féin will not accept policies which attack the most vulnerable, fail citizens’ rights and undermine agreements. No party in the North’s Executive has any mandate to do so.”

Mr Cameron, he said, had made a “derisory” offer and tried to dilute the Haass proposals of last year “while kicking everything else up the road”. Taoiseach Enda Kenny “unfortunately acquiesced with that approach; and then they both left”.

The Executive faces economic and political challenges, he said, and must have “the financial wherewithal to do it”, he said. “We will continue working towards that outcome, despite the British and Irish governments’ stance.

Earlier, Sinn Féin's Minister for Education John O'Dowd all but confirmed Sinn Féin has demanded a £1.5 billion (€1.9 billion) aid package from London, saying his party will not agree to "ideologically driven" cuts.

Stormont will run into serious trouble if a budget for next year is not agreed quickly. Minister for Finance Simon Hamilton said a deal has to be done no later than early January to give departments time to plan.

Political instability

However, the NI Secretary downplayed suggestions the Executive and Assembly will collapse, provoking political instability or direct rule: “None of those things necessarily follow,”she said.

“There is no statutory provision for direct rule,” she said, but the Executive would be “increasingly incapable of carrying out basic functions” if it goes beyond the end of January .

Questioned about Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams’s criticism Mr Cameron and Mr Kenny had been amateurish, she said Mr Adams had been “a bit arrogant” as he had joined the eight weeks of talks at the end.

Supporting strong warnings on Friday from Downing Street, the NI Secretary said politicians must learn to understand “the days of a prime minister flying in with a big cheque-book are over”.

Today’s talks in No 10 will be attended, too, by newly elected Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon and her Welsh counterpart Carwyn Jones.