The UK government would have released funding to the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Declan Morgan, for legacy inquests under a draft deal that Sinn Féin says was scuppered by the DUP.

Speaking yesterday following the apparent collapse of talks between the parties, Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said there had been a “draft agreement by the end of last week”.

Ms McDonald said Sinn Féin “at this time will not be publishing the draft agreement”, but wanted to address “speculation”.

She said it included legislation on the Irish langauge, as well as the “repeal of the ban on Irish in the courts”, which former Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muilleoir last year said he planned to challenge.

Ms McDonald added: “Separate from the agreement between the DUP and Sinn Féin, we had a commitment from the British government to put to consultation the legacy mechanisms agreed at Stormont House and release the funding requested by the Lord Chief Justice for coroner’s courts.”

Sir Declan, Northern Ireland’s top judge, has repeatedly criticised the lack of progress in releasing funding for legacy inquests since assuming the presidency of the Coroners’ Courts in November 2015.

In January 2017, Sir Declan said it “would be wrong” to allow the families to victims “to believe that we can somehow achieve the impossible under the existing inquest process”.

DUP leader Arlene Foster said the four weeks of talks were unsuccessful because “serious and significant gaps remain between ourselves and Sinn Féin especially on the issue of the Irish language”.