Video: What has Sir Jeffrey Donaldson ACTUALLY said so far about the deal to re-enter Stormont?

It is expected that the text of the deal between the DUP and the Tory government will be presented some time later today.

But with the dust still settling after the party’s executive meeting, here is what Sir Jeffrey said to waiting media (News Letter’s emphases):

"This package, I believe, safeguards Northern Ireland's place in the Union and will restore our place within the UK internal market.

"It will remove checks for goods moving within the UK and remaining in Northern Ireland, and will end Northern Ireland automatically following future EU laws.

"There will be legislation to provide new legal and practical protections for the Acts of Union and which guarantees unfettered access for Northern Ireland businesses to the rest of the UK.

"In the coming days, in addition to the publication of the details of the new package of proposals, the UK government will be required to deliver on the legislative commitments they have made to us.

"I am pleased to indicate that we have also secured a basis for cross-party support at Westminster for the measures negotiated; therefore, regardless of who forms the next UK government, these agreed measures will be taken forward beyond the forthcoming general election.”

Later on, at a press conference in Stormont, he was asked about what things on his wish list he had failed to achieve.

"I think we got most of the things that we wanted to achieve,” he replied.

"And indeed, when you assess the progress we've made against our seven tests, I think that we are satisfied that the elements that we have now delivered on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, and restoring Northern Ireland's place within the UK and its internal market, protecting our place in the Union, protecting our economic rights under the Acts of Union: these are all things that really matter to unionists, but fundamentally are important to Northern Ireland's place within the UK…

• Protocol latest: Donaldson tells News Letter his 'seven tests' remain the key as UK/EU deal mooted 'within weeks'

"One of the elements that was in the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, for example, introduced the concept of dual regulation in terms of the manufacture of goods in Northern Ireland.

"Now, businesses at that time were not happy with that concept. They preferred the simplicity of the current arrangements. But we would like to test that going forward.

"Another area where there is more work to do is moving goods out of the red lane, which is the only lane that will now exist at our ports, which deals with goods moving into the EU, if there are goods, and some businesses in Northern Ireland are moving their goods through the red lane, they don't need to. And we want to move those goods out of the red lane into the UK internal market system."

Asked bluntly by the BBC if the Irish Sea Border is “gone”, Sir Jeffrey replied: “In terms of the movement of goods within the UK? Absolutely, yes.

"Goods will flow freely from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

"There will no longer be a requirement for customs declarations, there will no longer be a requirement for physical checks, for identity checks, except in circumstances where – as with the rest of the UK – there's a suspicion that someone's smuggling goods into Northern Ireland.

"So I think that the progress we have made does restore Northern Ireland's place within the UK and its internal market.”

More from this reporter:

• Former DUP veteran Jim Wells says party members' desire to re-enter Stormont is 'clouded' by financial self-interest

• Jamie Bryson says the only unionists who could celebrate the DUP's deal to return to Stormont are ones who don't understand it

• DUP deal: Loyalist Communities Council chairman David Campbell says that a Sinn Fein First Minister for Northern Ireland is 'anti-democratic'

• DUP deal: Party founder Wallace Thompson says 'hardline unionism' has to give way to the 'real world'

Are things now as they were pre-Brexit?

"Well, Brexit has occurred. We've left the European Union. You can't possibly argue that having left the European Union, things are the same as they were then. Of course not...

"We've removed the border on goods moving within the UK and remaining in the UK.

"We've guaranteed unfettered access for Northern Ireland businesses into the market in Great Britain.

"The Protocol harmed all of that... we have restored the economic rights of the people of Northern Ireland that prevailed under Article Six of the Acts of Union.

"Great Britain is our biggest market, so we need to protect that market and our access, our unfettered access to the market in Great Britain.

"So if there is a new EU law that would harm that, then this institution [the Assembly] will be able to say to the UK government: ‘that law cannot apply because it will affect our ability to trade with the rest of the UK’.

"It would then be a matter for negotiation with the EU to ensure that we continue to have our access to the EU single market.

"But I don't anticipate that the EU are going to withdraw that access in those circumstances.”