Chancellor offers £35 billion for devolution

Northern Ireland politicians have today met with the Chancellor Gordon Brown as the devolution deadline approaches.

Mr Brown has told the political leaders an extra £1billion will be pledged to the government if devolution is successfully restored.

The money is in addition to the £35bn pledged to a new Executive over the next four years which would produce reforms and initiatives to boost the economy.

Mr Brown said: “This is an historic opportunity to move forward.

“I believe the Northern Ireland political parties are all serious about what can be done to achieve that.

"I believe that today by making possible the resumption of the executive through having the resources that they need, the potential for creating the jobs that they can and helping look at some of the challenges they face, we can move this process forward."

He continued: “Peter Hain and I had a very successful and constructive meeting and we are very grateful to all the parties for what they did.”

Democratic Unionist party leader Ian Paisley described the Chancellor's offer as “modest progress”, while SDLP leader Mark Durkan also called the announcement “modest improvements”.

Mr Brown yesterday announced a new Innovation Fund for jobs and industry would be made available should devolution go ahead on 26 March.

Northern Ireland politicians are facing a deadline of next Monday to set up a new power-sharing executive.

(JM/KMcA)