Main points of the new Northern Ireland deal

The 67-page agreement, entitled A Fresh Start, is designed to implement the various aspects of the Stormont House Agreement from last December, and to deal with the impact of continued paramilitary activity.

It sets out a strategy to end paramilitarism and paramilitary groups, and to set up a new high-level cross-border agency to deal with organised crime and smuggling.

However, there is no reference to the important factor of legacy issues.

Northern Secretary Theresa Villiers and Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan, who announced the package, said it was not possible to reach an agreement on legacy issues in this agreement.

“There was consensus on a range of issues, but not sufficient to gain support for our draft legislation,” said Ms Villiers.

The biggest financial component of the package is a STG£500 million commitment by the British government to deal with issues that are “unique to Northern Ireland”.

This includes funding to dismantle the infamous peace wall in Belfast, new funds of £161 million to deal with dissidents, paramilitaries and organised criminality as well as a further £25 million to deal with disbanding paramilitary groups.

The plan to tackle paramilitarism and crime will involve the setting up of a joint agency task force, comprising An Garda Síochána, the PSNI, the Revenue Commissioners and British revenue commissioners.

It will also see the involvement of the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) and the UK National Crime Agency, both of which are involved in the seizing of assets accrued by illegal or criminal means.

It will also involve a trilateral ministerial meeting between Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald, Northern Ireland Justice Minister David Ford, and Ms Villiers. This meeting will agree further priorities and duties for the task force, which will have a budget of millions of euros.

Paramilitaries

On the strategy to end what Mr Flanagan called the “insidious” influence of paramilitaries, it has been agreed a three-person panel on the issue will be appointed by the Executive by the end of December.

The panel will report back by the end of May 2016, with recommendations on disbanding paramilitary groups.

At a later stage, a four-person international body will be established to implement and monitor the process that emerges from the report.

On the financial and economic perspective, the document paves the way for a new lower 12.5 per cent rate of corporate tax to be introduced by April 2018, bringing the rate in the North down the same level as the Republic.

The British government has also committed to provide £60 million over five years in “confidence building measures”. This will allow for the removal of the so-called peace walls, which divide nationalist and loyalist communities in Belfast.

A total of £3 million will be provided over four years to fund the new monitoring and implementation body which will oversee the full disbandment of paramilitary groups and activity.

The agreement also includes a recommitment by the Government to provide funding for the A5, the road connecting Dublin to the northwest and Derry.

The previous Fianna Fáil-Green Party government had committed €400 million to the project, but this was withdrawn during the economic downturn.

Mr Flanagan said the Government had now committed a total of £75 million for the project over three years from 2017. This funding will be matched by the British government. It will mean there is now enough funding in place to allow the first section of the road between Derry and Strabane to be completed.

However, there is no specific funding allotted to another key piece of infrastructure, the Narrow Water Bridge connecting Co Louth to Co Down.

“This is not only important for economic development in Northern Ireland but also for building an all-island economy that creates jobs and prosperity for all our citizens,” said Mr Flanagan.

Welfare reform

On the key sticking point of welfare reform, a formula has been agreed that will allow legislation to be introduced in British parliament to allow for changes in the welfare regime in Northern Ireland.

The British government has made a more expansive offer of £585 million over four years to mitigate the effects of welfare cuts.

This compares with mitigation of £565 million over six years contained in the Stormont agreement.

Ms Villiers told the press conference it would mean Northern Ireland would have the most generous welfare system in the UK. The additional funding may be enough to allow Sinn Féin enough wriggle room to claim it held out successfully against what it termed Tory welfare cuts.

There are also commitments in the document to reduce the number of MLAs in the Assembly from the current complement of 108 to 90, which would be five per constituency, and to cut the number of government departments from 12 to nine.

A Bill on this issue will be drafted this month but will not commence until after the Assembly elections in May 2016.

In essence, that will mean the reductions will not take effect until 2020 at least.