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The Stormont House Agreement is a political accommodation between the British and Irish Governments, and a majority of parties that make up the Northern Ireland Executive. The Agreement was published on 23 December 2014. The Stormont House Agreement is intended to bind the parties and communities closer together on resolving identity issues, coming to a settlement on welfare reform, and on making government finance in Northern Ireland more sustainable. The Agreement was named after the building where the negotiations took place; Stormont House, the provincial headquarters of the Northern Ireland Office. The talks were primarily chaired by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Theresa Villiers, though Irish foreign minister Charlie Flanagan, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny also participated at various points. The Agreement came after approximately thirty hours of continuous, final-stage talks. Prior to the Agreement, there had been an increasing feeling that the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly were in danger of collapse. ==Background== In the aftermath of the Good Friday and St Andrews Agreements which brought and restored devolution to Northern Ireland several issues remained unresolved by the political parties in Northern Ireland. Issues relating to the legacy of The Troubles, including victims rights and investigation of historic criminal activity, had not been the subject of compromise between the Unionist and Nationalist communities. Ongoing division also surrounded issues of identity, including Orange Order parades and the flying of flags (which had manifested itself in the Belfast City Hall flag protests from 2012-2013). Some of these sources of disagreement were addressed during talks brokered by Richard Haass and Professor Meghan O'Sullivan. These talks began in September 2013, and broke up on 31 December of that year without agreement. Several other ongoing political contentions were also resolved by the Stormont House Agreement. These include the devolution of Corporation Tax to Northern Ireland. Within Northern Ireland there has been an all-party consensus on the need to devolve corporation tax to allow the Province to compete for business with the Republic of Ireland. This is because Ireland's rate of tax is 12.5%, considerably lower than the British rate of 20%, which Northern Ireland businesses currently pay. Welfare reform was also the subject of extensive disagreement between elements of the Executive (notably Sinn Féin), and the British Government. HM Treasury had been determined that Northern Ireland should adopt the welfare reform,and had imposed fines on the Executive for their failure to do so. Within the Executive the parties were split. Whilst Sinn Féin had opposed passing welfare reform, the Democratic Unionist Party had attempted to do so, arguing that it was inevitable, and that failure to do so would incur further fines from London. A primary aim of the Stormont House Agreement, particularly from the perspective of the British Government, was to resolve the welfare dispute, and have reform passed. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Stormont House Agreement」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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