Have we been robbed a sequel to the The Perfect Cowen Storm tonight? The Taoiseach has jetted to Belfast to be on hand for the morning after the night the Northern deal on power-sharing, parades and justice was agreed.

On April 12th, justice and policing powers will devolve from Westminister to the Northern Irish power-sharing government. The Northern Assembly will vote on the deal on March 9th to seal its passage.

Commenting on the work done to get the deal agreed on BBC5 Live this morning, Gerry Adams said that it has taken “a few hours to crunch” the deal, but “it took a while to get there”. The DUP’s Assembly members voted to accept the deal late last night.

Monday will see more movement, with party leaders meeting to discuss the new position of Justice Minister. Interesting to note that a non-aligned politician and leader of the Alliance Party, David Ford is being groomed for this job.

Also on Monday, a six-member working group co-chaired by Robinson and McGuinness will convene to discuss the formation of a new body to oversee parades.

The deal has been welcomed with differing levels of comment from across the political spectrum. Peter Robinson, Gerry Adams and the Prime Ministers have all made soundings that the deal marks a moment of “mutual respect”.

Quotage

Gordon Brown and Brian Cowen’s joint statement:

The successful outcome of these negotiations is the result of the political parties in Northern Ireland demonstrating leadership, mutual respect and political will to act in the interests of the whole community.

The two Governments fully support and stand over this agreement. We are committed to working, as appropriate, to ensure its faithful implementation.

Eamon Gilmore welcomed the deal cautiously:

The devolution of policing and justice powers was the most significant outstanding issue from the Good Friday/ St. Andrews process and hopefully today’s agreement will now lead to a period of greater political stability and certainty in Northern Ireland.

…

It is also important that the two governments should work to ensure that there is greater involvement by the other parties represented in the Assembly and that key decisions are not left simply to the DUP and Sinn Fein.

Leader of the hardline unionist group, the Traditional Unionist Voice, Jim Allister said:

The deal the DUP so meekly accepted is the same deal they rejected on Monday

..

The deal hasn’t changed, only the snowmen of the DUP, who melted once the heat came on.

Peter Robinson comments on the deal:

Links of interest

• Download the Agreement of Hillsborough Castle in full
• BBC profiles David Ford

Last update: 7/02/10

First up the Sunday Tribune.

Northern Editor Suzanne Breen interviews Gerry Adams’ niece, Aine Tyrell. Tyrell claims that Adams is lying when he says he couldn’t tell party colleagues that his brother was a suspected paedophile because she demanded anonymity from Adams.

Breen writes:

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Tribune, Tyrell was scathing of both the Sinn Féin president and the PSNI over their handling of the case.

She said: “I didn’t know Liam was in Sinn Féin but had Gerry bothered to tell me, I would have waived my anonymity without hesistation. I’d have accompanied Gerry to meet his colleagues in Sinn Féin, to talk to the ard chomhairle about what Liam had done so they could expel him from the party. But Gerry never gave that option.”

The piece continues with Tyrell saying that she never asked Adams to protect her anonymity and had asked him to address the fact that Liam Adams working on youth projects over and over again to no avail.

Under the fold of the Tribune frontpage,  Conor McMorrow reports on Fine Gael’s plans to reshape the electorial system. McMorrow writes:

The Sunday Tribune understands that key figures in the party are finalising an audacious plan to have a ‘Mixed Electoral System’, where 12 TDs will be elected from four regions based on the constituencies used for the European elections. They would be elected on the basis of a list system, which would be a break away from the PR-STV system which has been used in elections since the foundation of the state.

He continues:

A further 134 TDs would be elected in the traditional constituency-based elections and the new slimmed-down Dáil would have 20 less TDs than the current 16 deputies. The party hopes to implement the mammoth changes for the general election after the next one.

The Sunday Business Post leads with a story by Cliff Taylor and Ian Kehoe on the banks and Nama. Titled “State to pay banks less for transferring loans to NAMA”, their piece claims that the state’s bill to transfer loans to Nama will be “considerably lower than the expected €54 billion”.

They write:

Detailed investigation of the first loans to be transferred from the banks to the new agency shows the loans are worth less than previously estimated. The initial Nama plan had said that loads were likely to be transferred at 30 per cent below their original worth, but the indications are that the final discount will now be higher.

Under the Post lead comes a small but interesting piece by Ian Kehoe on how the government plans to tighten up the rules governing the artists’ exemption.

He writes:

The Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism is working with the Revenue Commissioners and the Arts Council on a major review of the scheme, particularly who can qualify for tax relief.

Oh yes and I got the Sindo, but it’s all gangs and Brendan O’Connor has a piece called “Stokes twins: pillars of hope”, so we’ll just grab a pic and leave it there!

Links to follow when the pieces go live on the web!

Sunday Tribune

Tomorrow’s Sunday Tribune is leading with a shocking story alleging that Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams knew about two other abuse victims and did nothing to help them.

Suzanne Breen exclusively reports:

Women from two of Ireland’s best-known republican families have spoken for the first time about how they were sexually abused by republicans and of how that abuse was covered up by Sinn Féin and the Provisional IRA.

A grand-niece of former IRA chief-of-staff Joe Cahill has told of how she was repeatedly raped at the age of 16 by a prominent IRA man in west Belfast.

The daughter of a now deceased IRA Belfast commander has spoken of how she was physically, mentally and sexually abused by someone who is currently a Sinn Féin elected representative.

She continues:

Both women said that Gerry Adams was aware of the details of their abuse but had failed to take action.

Sunday Independent
Tomorrow’s Sindo leads with a story on how former billionaire developers are quitting Ireland. It reports that Bernard McNamara has “taken flight” to his Marbella villa to “get his head around” the end of his 40 year career.

The lead story continues by reporting that Paddy Kelly (former head of Redquartz) has traveled to Africa and is having his Shrewsbury Road house cleared out so that the Chinese embassy can move in, as soon as. The majority of lenders to Redquartz have won over €100 million in judgments against it.

A adjacent sub-lead report by Jody Corcoran describes how Jean Tracey, the mistress at the centre of the Lillis murder case, is expected to take the stand this week at the Central Criminal Court.

The Sunday Business Post

The Sunday Business Post leads with a piece on how the proposed inquiry into the banking crisis will be held in private. Pat Leahy writes:

Rather than holding an Oireachtas inquiry or tribunal, the government will propose using a system similar to the Murphy Commission, which investigated the Catholic Church’s response to the child abuse in Dublin.

He continues:

The proposal is unlikely to satisfy the demands from opposition parties that an inquiry be conducted in public to ascertain the reason for the banking crisis, as well as the need to the publicly funded bail-out of the sector.

We’ll know on Tuesday when Government presents its plans to the Dáil.