DUP MP Sammy Wilson queries why it has apparently taken the NI Chamber of Commerce two years to openly concur with the party's call for a better funding model for NI.

“On behalf of the business community, we urge both party leaders and the Secretary of State to maintain momentum gathered in the most recent talks and reach agreement as early as possible in the New Year," Mr Geoghegan said.

He also highlighted managing public finances and addressing public sector pay as immediate challenges for the incoming power-sharing Executive.

“We welcome that the UK government has accepted the principle of a needs-based funding model for Northern Ireland," he said.

However he said it is imperative to consider "all of the fiscal levers available" when it comes to meeting the substantial costs of stabilising and transforming NI.

He also called for a short, sharp independent assessment of public services to identify waste and inefficiency.

Mr Wilson responded that it was "quite an impressive list of demands" but added that it is "a pity they were not vocal during the time when we were highlighting the fiscal deficit and unfairness of the Treasury funding formula for Northern Ireland over the last two years".

He also suggested it had been "virtually silent" on the NI Protocol and Windsor Framework and said it would help if they were to "add their weight" to efforts from the DUP "alone" to remove "the economic difficulties" they are causing.

However he expects the chamber to "maintain their cowardly silence because they don’t want to be seen to be taking the side of the biggest unionist party - even though they know that without resolving that issue Stormont cannot work and businesses will be adversely affected and our links with our biggest market will be loosened."

However UUP leader Doug Beattie appeared to give a ringing endorsement to the chamber's statement, saying the UUP have long argued for an Executive to drive "a prosperity agenda with a focus on our economy".

This would mean supporting the wealth generating business generators with "all financial levers available" he said.

Stabilisation and transformation are key elements of the current £3.3bn deal on offer from Government, he noted. This must deliver childcare and poverty strategies and take difficult financial decisions in order to support health and education, he said.

"Yet it is our failing infrastructure that is preventing real change and this must be addressed alongside our planning systems.”

But TUV party chairman councillor Keith Ratcliffe said that given "the dreadful overspend" of the last Stormont executive, it was "hard to credit the idea that the solution to all our ills will arrive if only devolution returns".

He added: "The most significant challenge facing the economy of Northern Ireland is the Protocol and its design to ease us out of the UK by orienting our economy towards an all-Ireland one.”

If Stormont returns then NI will have no say over around 60% of the laws impacting its economy, he said, which will be decided in Brussels “by people who have no interest in promoting the needs of the people of Northern Ireland”.