Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing, a podcast from the Institute for Government. I'm Emma Norris.

A deal has finally been struck. After two years of deadlock, Northern Ireland's political parties have settled on a new power-sharing arrangement.

Storm was sent to return, ministers are going to be back on post, and the civil servants who have been running things can take on well-earned rest.

So what has been agreed? Someone has to blink first, and what does a shin-vane first minister mean for the future of Northern Ireland will be reflecting on a historic week in Belfast.

And from one deal to another, four years ago this week, the UK formally left the EU after MPs

voted to back Boris Johnson's withdrawal agreement. But how will things worked out and could Brexit

yet end up being an issue at the next general election? And then we'll take a look at the question

of transparency, because in recent years the government has seemed to be rather more interested in being an issue at the next general election. And then we'll take a look at the question of

transparency because in recent years the government has seemed to be rather more interested in

covering up than opening up. Think of party gate, pandemic procurement and ministerial

use of WhatsApp. But is transparency actually good for government for just an onerous lot of work

for officials and ministers, a new IFG report makes our case.

Joining me today to discuss all of this is IFG Senior Fellow and Brexit Watcher in Chief, Jill Rutter.

Hi Jill.

Hi, Emma.

And we're joined again by Tim Durrant, who leads our Minister's Work Program.

Hi, Tim.

Hi, Emma, great to be here.

I'm delighted that we're joined today by Peter Foster,

public policy editor at the Financial Times. Great to see you again, Peter.

Thanks, Emma. Hi. Okay, so let's start with the historic developments in Northern Ireland this week.

Late night drama, party brinkmanship, a bit of Brexit, three billion pounds. It was all going on.

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