‘Make your mind up time’ for parties in North talks

This week is "make your mind up time" for the Northern parties to strike a deal to safeguard the Stormont institutions, the Northern Secretary Theresa Villiers has asserted.

As the Stormont House talks enter their tenth week Ms Villiers said in Belfast today “this is the week” to conclude the deal. Ms Villiers who was at Belfast City Hall to sign the book of condolences for the victims of the Paris attack appeared reasonably confident a deal would be got over the line.

“I really do think it is make your mind up time. We do need to get this sorted very soon, over the course of this week,” she said.

“Everyone recognises that we cannot go on with this process indefinitely; we cannot all be sat (at Stormont) on Christmas Eve,” she said. “It’s crucially important that we get this resolved as quickly as we can. This is the week to do it,” she added.

"We've had enough time. We know the issues. We know where all the parties stand. It's time to get this resolved so that the Executive can go back to normal and start delivering on its priorities and for Northern Ireland, said Ms Villiers. "We are making some good progress and it is really, really important that we reach a conclusion.

We are into week 10, we have had plenty of time to discuss all the issues.” The Northern Secretary said there was a continuing willingness on the part of the political leaders “to get this sorted”.

Ms Villiers added however that the issue of disclosure about the past and reconciling it with protecting British national security continued to be “very difficult”.

Sinn Féin and the SDLP have complained that the British government could “hide behind the cloak of British national security” to prevent the truth emerging in relation to British state killings and collusion.

“It continues to be a significant sticking point. We will continue working on it,” said Ms Villiers. The Northern Secretary said that over nine weeks of talks she had chaired 150 talks sessions and now was “the time to close the remaining gaps”.