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

The BBC is reporting that Gordon Brown will appear before the Chilcot Inquiry into Iraq *before* the General Election in the Summer. This could have a massive effect on performance of the out-going government in June’s elections.

It was thought that if Brown appeared before the General Election, it would be used like a political football prior to the election, so plans for his appearance were being shelved until after the Summer.

Things took a turn when Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg applied pressure on Brown by asking him what he had to hide and if he would do so before the elections. As expected, opposition MPs jumped on this and Brown was left with little choice, but to volunteer.

In recent days, Brown wrote to the Sir John Chilcot’s investigation offering to appear before the election.

Former PM Tony Blair will before the inquiry at the end of this month.

Photo: Dreamstime (1990)

We’re keeping track of Gordon Brown’s fight to hang onto to Number 10. Any more Secretaries going to jump the boat? You can also join the Liveblog here.