https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-66769783Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris has held talks with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar about restoring Stormont at the launch of a new funding scheme for Northern Ireland.
Mr Heaton-Harris met the Irish Prime Minister in Belfast on Monday at the Peace Plus event.
The scheme, which is funded by the UK, Ireland and EU will see £858m for NI and border counties.
The money is being made available from 2021 until 2027.
The funding announcement comes at a time when Northern Ireland has no functioning devolved government.
It collapsed last year when the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) withdrew in protest against post-Brexit trade barriers between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
The DUP has said the Windsor Framework deal - struck by the European Union and UK Government earlier this year to reform the Northern Ireland Protocol - does not go far enough to address its concerns.
