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News NI
Liam McBurney/PAThe Stormont Executive has agreed a long-awaited programme for government, News NI understands.
A virtual meeting of ministers lasted about 40 minutes on Thursday morning, a day after plans to agree the document were pulled at the last minute.
The first and deputy first ministers are expected to do a press conference later on Thursday.
The document will have to be delivered to the assembly first on Monday before it can be published to the wider public.
It is understood the document contains a number of targets alongside the executive’s nine main priorities.
Taoiseach visit
First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly are also due to meet the taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin later on Thursday.
It will be his first visit to Northern Ireland since becoming taoiseach again in January following elections in November.
Martin is also expected to hold meetings with Alliance leader Naomi Long and SDLP leader Claire Hanna, and speak by phone with Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Mike Nesbitt.
He will be greeted at Stormont’s Parliament Buildings by Northern Ireland Assembly speaker Edwin Poots.
The taoiseach is also due to give a keynote address at the Dublin Belfast Economic Corridor Summit at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Belfast.
When was the last programme for government agreed?
It has been some time since a Stormont executive agreed a finalised programme for government.
The last time an executive managed to get one over the line was during the assembly’s fourth term between 2011 and 2015.
One was also agreed in 2016 and went out to public consultation.
But before it could be passed, the power-sharing institutions collapsed following the resignation of then Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
