Northern Ireland’s parties said on Saturday they were making progress towards a deal to save their fragile power-sharing administration after six days of tense negotiations.
Edwin Poots, a senior negotiator for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said there had been “considerable advancement” in the talks about transferring control of policing and justice powers from London to Belfast.
Conor Murphy, of the DUP’s power-sharing partners Sinn Fein, agreed that progress was being made and said the party wanted to bring matters to a “speedy conclusion.”
Negotiators were to have a day off yesterday before returning to the negotiating table today, the parties said.
The DUP and Sinn Fein carried on their discussions in the British province even after a 48-hour ultimatum issued by the British and Irish prime ministers expired on Friday.
The Protestant DUP, which wants Northern Ireland to remain part of Britain, and Sinn Fein, Catholics who want to see a united Ireland, are former arch-foes who now share power.
The transfer of the policing and justice powers is the final major piece in the province’s devolution jigsaw, but failure to strike a deal could cause the executive to collapse and trigger elections.
Sinn Fein has blamed the impasse on the DUP’s demands for concessions on controversial Protestant parades that pass near Catholic areas and frequently spark violent clashes.
But Poots, the province’s environment minister, said he could see light at the end of the tunnel.
“The talks were looking at tidying up some things tonight and there is some work to be done on Monday,” he said.
“There is considerable advancement. I said previously there would have to be certainty and clarity and there would appear to be greater certainty and clarity,” he said.
Murphy, who is minister for regional development, said: “We are maybe getting somewhere now. We have progress made, we are hopeful that we can finish this fairly quickly.”
The British minister responsible for the province, Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward, said the negotiations had made “considerable progress,” but “there remains work to be done.”
Britain and Ireland helped broker the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which led to the creation of the power-sharing executive and largely halted three decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
At least 3,500 people have been killed in the conflict.
But the killings of two soldiers and a policeman last year in attacks claimed by dissident republican groups raised fears that the province could slip back into violence.
A policeman had to have a leg amputated after a car bombing this month and several other bombings have been foiled in recent months.
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