Power-sharing agreement reached in Northern Ireland

The leaders of Northern Ireland’s Irish nationalist and British unionist communities clinched a deal to prevent its power-sharing administration from collapsing, the British and Irish governments said on Tuesday.

At today’s press conference, Minister Flanagan concluded: “Devolved government in Northern Ireland is now placed on a more sustainable footing; this, together with the firm commitment to working for the ending paramilitarism, will help build the peaceful, reconciled, prosperous Northern Ireland its people deserve”.

It is understood the deal has found a way to resolve an acute budgetary crisis caused by a long-running failure to implement welfare reforms in the North.

An additional £500m from the Exchequer to tackle issues unique to Northern Ireland, including efforts on the removal of peace walls.

Talks on dealing with historic crimes, the use of flags in the province and the implementation of social welfare cuts have been held intermittently for over a year and in late 2014 led to the Stormont House Agreement, which quickly unravelled.

A motion which would give Westminster the power to enact the controversial reforms of the benefits system will be debated during a specially-convened plenary session in the Stormont Assembly on Wednesday.

The fallout from the killing of former IRA man Kevin McGuigan was also on the agenda during the 10-week talks process and a new panel is being set up to examine the ongoing scourge of paramilitarism.

Mr Cameron’s Irish counterpart, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, said the progress on tackling paramilitaries was a critical step.

Elected representatives have fresh obligations under the new agreement to look to the end of all forms of paramilitary activity and groups in Northern Ireland society and a new high-level tripartite task force, which will involves agencies from the North, Republic and Britain, will be constructed to deal specifically with cross-border crime.

“It underpins all our efforts to bring greater reconciliation and economic prosperity to the people of Northern Ireland and communities right across our island”, he said.

“The legacy of the past remains a huge gap in this work”, he said.

An worldwide body will be established to oversee that.

But the stalemate, which was also connected to a budget crisis over welfare reforms not being implemented, lingered on until Tuesday’s deal was signed by Robinson and his deputy, Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness.