The UK Government has a responsibility to provide funding to help implement any potential deal emerging from the latest peace process negotiations in Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness has insisted.
Stormont's Deputy First Minister claimed the administrations in Washington and Dublin were also of the view that London should make a contribution in the event of an agreement on how to deal with the contentious issues of flags, parades and the legacy of the past.
Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers said the Government could not guarantee additional support but said any bid would be considered "very seriously".
Stormont is currently locked in political impasse on a draft deal to resolve the three divisive issues. Former US diplomat Dr Richard Haass, who chaired a six-month talks process in a bid to find agreement, has proposed a blueprint settlement that has yet to achieve consensus.
The leaders of the five parties, Sinn Fein, SDLP, DUP, UUP and Alliance, are due to meet again today in a bid to make progress.
Mr McGuinness told the Assembly the onus was on the British Government to contribute financially to implementation. "I think there is a huge responsibility on the British Government in particular to recognise that in the event of agreement being reached that they should make a financial contribution," he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article