Stormont: parties set for third day of talks over funding package
Secretary of State, Chris Heaton-Harris expected to return to Hillsborough Castle
Chris Heaton-Harris is expected be back in Northern Ireland today (Wednesday) as talks with the main political parties enter a third day at Hillsborough Castle.
The Secretary of State missed yesterday's discussions because he was in Westminster for the first reading of the Rwanda Bill which passed by a majority of 43.
On the agenda will be the £2.5bn package offered by the Government for a return to power-sharing.
The proposed measures include funding for public sector pay rises this year, reform of the funding model for Northern Ireland - including the setting of a new fiscal floor, and increasing the period by which Stormont has to pay back a budget overspend.
Yesterday DUP MLA Gordon Lyons said there had to be a long-term solution to Northern Ireland's funding crisis.
He said: "We don't want something which just gets us over the hump of this year or allows for pay increases to take place over one year.
"We want to ensure in the next number of years we have that certainty so we're not back here again and public sector workers are having to go on strike again."
Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy called on the Government to immediately pay a lump sump to settle a public sector pay claim, rather than waiting for the return of Northern Ireland's institutions.
He said: "The fact is, if the British Government currently has money to pay public sector workers who are standing out here yesterday freezing and will be on strike again, why don't they pay them now?
"Why should workers have to wait for the DUP to decide if they are going to do powersharing or not do powersharing as to whether they will get a wage this year?"
Meanwhile, Ireland's deputy premier and foreign affairs minister Micheal Martin is to meet UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron in London on Wednesday.
Lord Cameron and Mr Martin are expected to discuss bilateral relations and efforts to restore the powersharing institutions in Northern Ireland, and to share perspectives on foreign policy issues - including the war in Ukraine.