Here are the key elements to the new Stormont deal

Here are the key elements contained in the 67 pages of A Fresh Start – The Stormont Agreement and Implementation Plan.

Section A: Ending Paramilitarism and Tackling Organised Crime:

:: Signatories pledge a “resolute commitment” to complete process of ending paramilitarism and promise “most far reaching commitments ever taken to uphold rule of law and end paramilitarism”.

:: The commitments, including undertaking to accept no instructions from such organisations, will be incorporated into the Executive’s ministerial code of office and will also be required of all Assembly members.

:: Executive and two governments will meet in December to agree new measures to tackle organised crime and paramilitarism.

:: A Joint Agency Task Force, comprising police commanders and customs officials from both sides of the border, will report to ministers every six months.

:: Steps to speed up the criminal justice system, provide more support to victims and enhance forensic science capabilities.

:: Programmes established to prevent young people being drawn into paramilitary activity and to reintegrate former paramilitaries into wider society.

:: Executive will publish an action plan on tackling paramilitarism by June 2016.

:: A new four-member international body will monitor progress. The Executive will nominate two members of the panel, with the governments appointing one each. The panel will report annually to 2021.

Section B: NI Executive Financial Reforms and Context:

:: Previous commitments to reduce the number of Executive departments from 12 to nine by May 2016 and to cut the number of MLAs from 108 to 90 by the Assembly election after next go ahead.

:: Executive will be handed power to set its own rate of corporation tax with the intent of reducing the rate to the 12.5% levied in the Republic by April 2018. The move is dependent on the Executive committing to a sustainable budget and implementing the rest of the Fresh Start agreement.

Section C: NI Executive Welfare and Tax Credits Top-Ups:

:: Reforms to the benefits system introduced elsewhere in the UK from 2012 will finally be rolled out in the North through Westminster legislation, by way of a Legislative Consent Motion approved by the Assembly. An Act enabling Westminster to legislate on welfare in the North will lapse at the end of 2016.

:: Executive has agreed to allocate £585m over four years (a six-year period was originally agreed) to top up welfare payments. £345m will cover welfare claimants and £240m will support those impacted by changes to tax credits. This policy will be reviewed in 2018/19.

:: A working group chaired by Ulster University professor Eileen Evason will decide exactly where the money will be spent.

:: The controversial so-called “bedroom tax” will not be introduced in the North.

Section D: UK Government Financial Support:

:: The Government offered a £2bn financial support package in last December’s Stormont House Agreement (SHA).

:: It is boosting that package by a further £500m to fund issues “unique” to Northern Ireland. This includes £160m in additional funding, over five years, for the Police Service of Northern Ireland to tackle dissident republicans (this money represents a continuation of additional Treasury support already offered to the PSNI); £25m for the Executive to tackle continuing paramilitary activity (match-funded by the Executive); £60m to build community relations through initiatives such as bringing down community “peace walls”; and £125m, over five years, to address fraud and error in the welfare system.

:: Executive will have the ability to retain half of the anticipated savings accrued through reducing welfare fraud and error.

:: The Government has offered “further flexibilities” to enable £500m offered in the SHA for shared and integrated education schemes to also be spent on shared housing projects.

:: The £150m for the legacy bodies envisaged in the SHA will only be released subject to an as-yet-elusive agreement on the establishment of those bodies.

:: Series of new control measures to prevent Executive overspends will be implemented.

:: Executive has conducted an in year “monitoring round” to rebalance its budget shortfall.

:: The Government will undertake to assess the impact of corporation tax reductions to make future adjustments to Northern Ireland’s block grant.

Section E: Irish Government Financial Support:

:: The Dublin government has pledged “targeted investment” in cross-border economic infrastructure.

:: It has committed a further £25m to the £50m it is already spending on the A5 dual carriageway linking Derry to Aughnacloy. However, the Irish government had previously committed £400m to the project – an undertaking it pulled in 2011.

:: It will offer €2.5m for a “development fund” for the north west of Ireland.

:: The Irish Government will also “explore further development” of the Ulster Canal’s cross-border waterway links.

:: It will also undertake, alongside the Executive, a review of the stalled plan for a cross-border bridge at Narrow Water between counties Louth and Down.

Section F: Implementation of other aspects of the Stormont House Agreement:

:: Plans for a commission to examine the thorny issues of flags, identity, culture and tradition will proceed.

:: So too will a plan to transfer from Westminster to the Assembly the responsibility for regulating parades. Executive discussion paper will be produced to outline options on how to regulate parades and associated protests.

:: The agreement acknowledges the implementation of new mechanisms to deal with the legacy of the Troubles, such as a new investigations unit and a truth recovery body, remain “work in progress” and signatories were “unable to find a way forward on some key issues”.

:: The two governments have pledged to “reflect on options” for another process to achieve progress in this area.

:: Plans to set up provisions for the formation of an official opposition in the Assembly will proceed.

:: A new protocol will be agreed on the Assembly’s contentious Petition of Concern vote blocking mechanism. It will include a pledge to only deploy it in “exceptional circumstances”.