Northern Ireland’s political parties have been challenged to return to Stormont and restore powersharing on Friday after a dramatic night of developments in political efforts to resurrect devolution.

The UK and Irish governments jointly published a suggested deal late on Thursday and urged the five main parties to sign up and re-enter the region’s institutions.

Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith wrote to the speaker of the defunct Assembly requesting him to convene a sitting on Friday - so issuing a challenge to the parties to turn up and get back to business.

“Now is decision time,” Mr Smith said as he stood in front of Parliament Buildings on Thursday night.

“We have had three years of talks, finally there is good deal on the table that all parties can support and on that basis I have tonight written to the speaker of this Assembly and asked him to recall it tomorrow to enable the restoration of the executive before the weekend.

“I urge all parties to come here tomorrow and serve the people of Northern Ireland.”

The document shown to the parties on Thursday night contained promises of extra cash for the region and the creation of two “language commissioners” as part of a plan to remove barriers that have blocked previous attempts to revive power sharing.

The move appeared to have produced a breakthrough following three years of political deadlock.

The Democratic Unionist party gave the plan a cautious welcome. The DUP leader, Arlene Foster, said: “On balance, we believe there is a basis upon which the [Northern Ireland] assembly and executive can be re-established in a fair and balanced way.”

The former first minister added: “This is not a perfect deal … there are elements within it which we recognise are the product of long negotiations and represent compromise outcomes. There will always need to be give and take.”

Dealing with the most controversial issue that has prevented a return to regional government for the region, ministers from London and Dublin presented an agreement that includes commissioners to protect the Irish language alongside Ulster Scots.

Sinn Féin has called a meeting of its ruling council to deliberate on the proposals.

It is understood the Ard Chomhairle (ruling council) will meet in Belfast around lunchtime.

The national officer board will meet in the morning and subsequently make a recommendation to the Ard Chomhairle members to either accept or reject the deal.

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald said: “We are studying the text and will give it careful consideration.”

Sinn Féin’s key demand to re-enter coalition with the DUP had been for a stand-alone Irish Language Act which would put Gaelic on an equal par to English.

Unionists opposed such a move but, in a bid to address their concerns, the two governments have drawn up plans for “an Ulster British Language Commissioner dealing with Ulster Scots language and associated culture and heritage”.

The governments also proposed created a new devolved ministry or “Office for Identity and Cultural Expression”, which they said in their document would “promote cultural diversity and inclusion across all identities and cultures.”

This week marked the third year since devolved power sharing agreement collapsed. Sinn Féin withdrew from the regional government over the DUP’s role in a controversial, botched green energy scheme that wasted hundreds of millions pounds.

Both Northern Ireland secretary Julian Smith and the Irish deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney, used the word “balance” to describe the range of compromises contained within their document, which the five main parties – most crucially Sinn Féin and the DUP – must accept if power sharing is to be restored.

The document they showed the parties – which also included the centrist Alliance party, the SDLP and the Ulster Unionist party – is titled “New Decade, New Approach”.

Coveney warned the parties that there was “no public patience, for more process and more discussions”.

In a joint move to pile pressure on the parties, in particular the DUP, to back the proposed agreement, the governments also dangled the carrot of extra cash for Northern Ireland’s health service and education system if a compromise could be found.

There will also be a major reform of the “petition of concern”, a parliamentary mechanism designed to prevent domination in the regional assembly by one community over another. It allows for a party or parties from one community to veto any legislation which it believes discriminates against their voters. In effect the petition of concern has been used over the last decade by the DUP to veto a majority vote in favour of gay marriage equality in the last assembly before it collapsed in 2017.

The key element of the new agreement emphasised that it “will not be a veto for any one party”.

Ulster Unionist party Leader, Steve Aiken, did not reject the agreement. He said his party is “committed to a return of devolution that is fair and sustainable”, and if the assembly is recalled on Friday his assembly members “would attend and consider the business put before them”.﻿