Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

As I said in my reply there have been a number of meetings involving both Governments and the Northern Ireland parties in recent weeks. The main focus of those talks has been the financial package to support the Northern Ireland Executive once devolution of policing and justices has taken place. The Prime Minister has taken a close personal interest in those discussions and I am grateful to him for those efforts, which I believe have resulted in agreement on an excellent financial package which will be published later today. I spoke to him by telephone this morning.

For their part, the First and Deputy First Ministers and the Northern Ireland parties are in ongoing discussions about issues on which they need to finalise arrangements, including the appointment of a justice Minister and how the new Department and Minister will fit into the existing Executive system in the North. Legislation to facilitate that has been passed at Westminster and the necessary Northern Ireland legislation is currently working its way through the Assembly and its committee system.

In parallel to all of that the First Minister has indicated that he wants to maximise what he has described as community confidence. The publication later today of the financial package is a major step forward in that regard. There are a few more steps to be taken before devolution finally takes place but I remain optimistic that it will proceed in the near future.

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