Sinn Féin and the DUP to meet this evening as efforts continue to secure a deal on the questions of justice, parading and the future of the Assembly.
Democratic Unionist members were locked in lengthy internal discussions today on whether they will sign up to a deal that could save Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government.
A scheduled morning meeting of the party’s assembly group at Parliament Buildings in Stormont had extended through lunchtime with no sign of progress amid fears that some hardline members could be experiencing cold feet over the proposed settlement to end the row with Sinn Féin over the stalled devolution of policing and justice powers.
Emerging from talks this evening, DUP leader Peter Robinson said the party would meet Sinn Féin negotiators and government officials later tonight to push for a deal.
“The process is one that we have committed ourselves to as a political party. We are determined to make the institutions work,” he said. “We don’t believe that we should be operating on the basis of any threat to collapse the institutions. The people voted for these institutions, they want to see them work, and we want to see them work.”
Earlier, Sinn Féin held a meeting to brief its members. Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly tonight insisted an agreement was still within reach. "We are confident we can make the deal," he said in Stormont. "There are a few issues which need to be sorted out."
Both the DUP and Sinn Féin said significant progress was made last week during a marathon 100 hours of negotiations at Hillsborough.
Earlier expectations that Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Prime Minister Gordon Brown were poised to return to Hillsborough Castle diminished this afternoon.
A spokeswoman for the Taoiseach confirmed this morning that a planned lunchtime meeting in Madrid with Spanish prime minister José Luis Zapatero had been deferred. However, there is no indication as yet that Mr Cowen will travel to the North.
In the House of Commons today, British foreign secretary David Miliband appeared to let slip that Mr Brown had planned a visit to Belfast but had postponed it. He told MPs the Prime Minister was in Belfast but then retracted it. "Although I had been reliably informed that the Prime Minister was on his way to Belfast, it now transpires that he is not on his to way to Belfast ... for various reasons which I won't go into actually. But I apologise for having got that wrong earlier on," he said.
Downing Street said it could not rule out a visit to Belfast by Mr Brown, but he was planning to work in Number 10 today. Asked whether Mr Brown was planning to go to Northern Ireland, a spokeswoman said: "He is keeping a close eye on progress in Northern Ireland on the talks and he remains optimistic that a deal can be done."
After the parties disagreed last week over a solution for dealing with Orange Order parades, the Irish and British governments gave them a deadline of Friday afternoon after which they threatened to publish their own proposals to break the deadlock. The deadline passed with both sides agreeing to try to broker a solution.
The six-day negotiations were adjourned on Saturday night with all parties sounding more positive.
The key sticking point was a DUP demand for the abolition of the Parades Commission, which adjudicates on contentious marches, instead leaving it to an independent panel, appointed by the office of the First and Deputy First Minister, to arbitrate. But they insisted they are open to alternative proposals on parades.
Mr Brown and Mr Cowen failed to secure a deal before leaving the venue last Wednesday. They want the two sides to agree a process to transfer policing powers from London to Belfast by the start of May.
If there is no deal, there is a possibility Sinn Féin would walk away, collapsing the power-sharing executive and triggering new Stormont elections.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said this morning the issue was about people's rights and having those rights upheld by both the Irish and British governments.: "It's very hard to get the DUP to do the business if the governments are not upholding agreements".
However, he said the atmosphere at the talks had improved. "After the first 70 or 80 hours . . . it was like playing a game of hurling, we were able, I think, to have control of the pitch, to have game on with the DUP, and that has continued for the last 20 or 30 hours of engagement."
Mr Adams told RTE's Morning Ireland the way parades are facilitated and monitored would be improved under any deal "but that does not mean a parade down Garvaghy Road".
"The only way a parade can go down Gavaghy Road, or the Ormeau Road for that matter, is if the local communities invite the marchers in." He concluded: "I'm satisfied today . . . there is going to be a necessity of a deal, and very soon".
DUP Minister Sammy Wilson said yesterday he was hopeful of a deal. Referring to some of the more difficult issues which have been sticking points, understood to be mechanisms for handling contentious parades, Mr Wilson added: “We are happier now we have a resolution.”
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin and Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward, who have jointly chaired some 100 hours of talks at Hillsborough, returned today for what both Dublin and London are hoping will be a final and successful session of talks.
Additional reporting: PA