Northern Ireland: Arlene Foster to lead power-sharing talks

Stormont - photo credit: PA

Northern Ireland's former first minister Arlene Foster will today lead talks aimed at building a new power-sharing arrangement at Stormont.

Foster's Democratic Unionists lost 10 seats at the assembly elections last week, meaning they are only one seat ahead of nationalist party Sinn Fein.

The elections were called after she refused to stand down as first minister after overseeing an energy subsidy scheme that could cost the executive hundreds of millions of pounds.

Despite the DUP's poor electoral performance Foster insists she will carry on as first minister, and has vowed to "get the executive up and running again".

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“I am listening not just to those who voted for the DUP but to those who cast their votes for other parties," she wrote in a column for the Sunday Life newspaper yesterday.

Sinn Fein leader Michelle O'Neill has also expressed optimism about the negotiations, saying a new deal is "achievable if people come at it with the right attitude".

Party leaders will be joined at today's talks by the Northern Ireland Secretary, James Brokenshire, along with Ireland's foreign minister Charlie Flanagan.

​Should the DUP and Sinn Fein fail to reach a deal, there is the possibility the UK government will re-impose direct rule from Westminster - a move strongly opposed by nationalist politicians.