Progress made in DUP talks but 'no timeline' for return of Stormont

Tánaiste Micheál Martin (and the UK government's Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris at Farmleigh House. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

The UK government's Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has insisted that talks with the DUP over the trade border impasse are making progress, but has refused to put a timeline on the restoration of Stormont.

Mr Heaton-Harris, who was part of a UK government delegation which attended a meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in Dublin, said the negotiations were in their “final, final stages”.