Power sharing accord ‘can be reached’

AGREEMENT to restore powersharing in Northern Ireland can be reached in the short term, Sinn Fein has insisted.

Newry and Armagh MLA Conor Murphy made the comment following the first roundtable discussion of the new year after the talks were paused for the festive period.

He said he sees “no need” to draw the talks out until the January 13 deadline.

The latest process, which was initiated in the wake of the General Election, was paused over the festive season after a pre-christmas deal failed to materialise.

Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith, Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney and the local parties returned to Stormont House yesterday morning to resume the effort.

The Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein held separate meetings with Mr Smith, before roundtable talks with the other Stormont parties and the Irish government.

Further bilateral meetings continued throughout the day. Mr Murphy said the first roundtable meeting had lasted 30-45 minutes.

“We think agreement can be reached in short order, we don’t see any need to run this down to the wire to January 13 in some kind of dramatic way,” he said.

“The issues we are dealing with are all well rehearsed. What we need now is political will to get down to resolving very very quickly and that is going to be our focus in the next day or two.”

He said agreement remained to be reached on a number of issues.

Mr Murphy outlined some of the issues where agreement remains to be reached.

“There are obvious ones around language provision, the petition of concern and its usage, but there are also issues this afternoon which will be talked out around programme for government, financial resources available to any new Executive,” he said.