Northern politicians will next week start grappling with how to deal with the fallout from the killing of Belfast republican Kevin McGuigan last month and the more general issue of paramilitarism.
A week ago there was doubt over whether serious political negotiations could begin to address the two key issues of the IRA and the paramilitaries, and the deadlock over welfare reform, both of which are threatening the Northern Executive and Assembly.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan and Northern Secretary Theresa Villiers were involved in the negotiations at Stormont on Thursday.
Implementation of the stalled Stormont House Agreement of last Christmas is being held up because in March Sinn Féin and the SDLP said they could not live with the welfare changes. Progress on this issue is expected to be difficult and slow.
The talks have yet to seriously tackle the PSNI chief constable George Hamilton’s assessment that the IRA still exists and some of its members with others were involved in the killing of Mr McGuigan in east Belfast.
This created a crisis, with the DUP and the Ulster Unionist Party effectively boycotting the Executive until the issue of the IRA is resolved.
