Governments bid to break deadlock in North

Foreign Minister Micheál Martin and the Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward are due to meet tonight as the Irish and British governments prepare to step up the pressure to end the political crisis in Belfast in the aftermath of the Iris Robinson scandal.

With First Minister Peter Robinson standing down for six weeks to be with his wife and children, Dublin and London are becoming more and more alarmed that any further delay in the transfer of policing and justice powers from Westminster to Stormont could end with the collapse of the power-sharing executive.