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Brendan Hughes and Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI
Liam McBurney/PA
First Minister Michelle O'Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly
The Stormont Executive has agreed a long-awaited programme for government, BBC News NI understands.
A virtual meeting of ministers lasted about 40 minutes on Thursday morning, a day after plans to agree the document were pulled at the last minute.
The first and deputy first ministers are expected to do a press conference later on Thursday.
The document will have to be delivered to the assembly first on Monday before it can be published to the wider public.
The programme for government comes just over a year since the Northern Ireland Executive reformed in February 2024.
It is understood the document contains a number of targets alongside the executive's nine main priorities.
A draft version of the programme, an 88-page document entitled Our Plan: Doing What Matters Most, was unveiled last September before an eight-week public consultation.
Taoiseach visit cancelled
Meanwhile a visit by Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin to Belfast today has been postponed.
He was due to visit Stormont for the first time since being re-elected taoiseach last month.
The Irish government said that the meeting has been pulled due to a schedule change.
Irish national broadcaster RTÉ has reported that Martin is to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Shannon Airport.
Zelensky is to make a brief stop in Ireland before travelling to the United States to meet President Trump.
What did the draft programme for government contain?
The priorities set out in the draft were described by First Minister Michelle O'Neill as "ambitious and focused".
There were nine key priorities:
- Grow a globally competitive and sustainable economy
- Deliver more affordable childcare
- Cut health waiting lists
- Ending violence against women and girls
- Better support for children and young people with special educational needs
- Provide more social, affordable and sustainable housing
- Safer communities
- Protect Lough Neagh and the environment
- Reform and transformation of public services
When was the last programme for government agreed?
It has been some time since a Stormont executive agreed a finalised programme for government.
The last time an executive managed to get one over the line was during the assembly's fourth term between 2011 and 2015.
One was also agreed in 2016 and went out to public consultation.
But before it could be passed, the power-sharing institutions collapsed following the resignation of then Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
