DUP's Sir Jeffrey Donaldson 'hopeful' of progress in UK Government talks on legal assurances

The DUP Leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said he is "hopeful" of further progress in the next few weeks in talks his party has been having with the government to secure assurances of Northern Ireland's place within the UK.

The political parties who could form any future Executive at Stormont met the Head of the Civil Service Jayne Brady at Stormont Castle on Thursday morning.

The challenges for any future Executive, particularly around budget pressures, were discussed.

After the two-and-a-half hour meeting, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was asked if he knew when the government may be ready to provide the legislation he wants for Northern Ireland's trading arrangements with the rest of the UK following the Windsor Framework deal.

The DUP Leader said: "We are reaching an important stage in that process over the next few weeks and it will determine whether the government is able to deliver what is required that will facilitate the restoration of our political institutions.

"But we are clear that has to be on a stable and sustainable basis."

When the parties last met the Head of the Civil Service two weeks ago they said Stormont needed at least a £1billion to plug the budget pressures.

The parties are now working on a joint financial proposal to put to the Treasury to help with the current budget problems but to also transform services.

The UUP Leader Doug Beattie described the morning meeting as "positive" and that all the parties were now talking about "when the Executive gets up and running again and what we can do about a programme for government, and what will our priorities be."

Mr Beattie said: "You can see there is a pace ramping up now where people are starting to look at where we can get more money in, where we can ask for more investment."

Sinn Féin's Conor Murphy, who was also at the meeting at Stormont Castle, said afterwards while the discussions with the other parties were "useful" Northern Ireland's financial situation continued to be a "bleak picture".

Mr Murphy said the DUP had as yet given no indication about either when or if it will return Stormont.

He said: "There's a range of discussions about what the priorities would be, about what funding is required, what case might be put to the governments, and that's all useful work.

"But it will be academic unless we find out if we are going into an Executive or not, because if there isn't an Executive being formed then there will be no programme for government, there will be no case for funding and public services will continue to suffer."

The Alliance Party deputy leader Stephen Farry said the length of the meeting indicated that "serious work was being done in trying to put together a coherent plan that will come from the Executive parties to the UK Government".

Mr Farry added: "We would much prefer to be doing this work as part of an Executive and it is important to understand this work should not be seen as a barrier to an Executive being restored, the sooner we can move into an Executive the better for so many reasons."

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know.