Taoiseach Leo Varadkar travelled to Stormont today to engage in a last-minute meeting with the British Prime Minister.

Back in January 2017, Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness resigned as Deputy First Minister stating that "today is the right time to call a halt to the DUP's arrogance." This, in turn, collapsed the Stormont Executive. Mr McGuinness announced his decision following Mrs Foster's repeated refusal to step down to facilitate a probe into the ill-fated Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) – a scheme which inevitably left Stormont facing a £490m (€565m) overspend. On Monday afternoon, the Taoiseach, Theresa May, Simon Coveney, the DUP, Sinn Féin, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley and a number of other officials met in Belfast to engage in negotiations to try to agree on the issues that forced the power-sharing executive at Stormont to collapse over a year ago. Speaking at Stormont on Monday evening, Mrs May said that "while differences remain, I think there is the basis of an agreement here" and hoped that an executive could be "up and running very soon". The Prime Minister also specified that the meetings had been "full and frank". She said: "It's been 13 long months since we last saw devolved government here and I think we are now at the point where it's time for the local elected representatives to find a way to work together and to deal with, to tackle, the many pressing issues facing Northern Ireland. "I've had full and frank conversations with the five parties and I've also met with the Taoiseach. "While some differences remain, I believe it is possible to see the basis of an agreement." https://twitter.com/campaignforleo/status/963053782866300929 Newly-elected Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald spoke today after Varadkar left for Belfast and stated that her party does not believe there is “anything insurmountable left to resolve” in talks to restore the Executive in Northern Ireland. McDonald was speaking after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar travelled to Belfast today for a last-minute meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May to discuss the restoration of power-sharing at Stormont. “This is now a decisive phase of the process, this is the week for decision time,” McDonald said. "We made it very clear when we came into this round of talks that we did so on the basis that we would have delivery, that there was clarity on the key outstanding issues and that we would not enter into an endless meandering process because ultimately for a deal to happen the parties have to want a deal to happen. “We don’t believe there is anything now insurmountable left to resolve.” Northern Ireland has been without a functioning government since McGuinness' resignation in January 2017 and several rounds of talks to resolve the crisis have failed to restore one. On Saturday, Sinn Féin's Stormont leader Michelle O'Neill said that she believed that talks were likely to end this week.