Wrightbus hope and father’s drugs plea

After more than a week of reports on employment woes in Belfast and Ballymena, Wednesday’s headlines bring a more upbeat start to the day.

The Belfast Telegraph reports that two bidders have offered “one last chance” for the sale of collapsed Ballymena company Wrightbus.

The paper quotes North Antrim DUP MP Ian Paisley, who said he hoped a deal could be concluded by the end of next week.

The details of the bidders emerged in a letter sent to councillors ahead of a special meeting of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council on Tuesday night to discuss the collapse of Wrightbus.

The new owners, it says, are focused on the development and commercialisation of advanced high-value energy infrastructure projects across the world.

Economist John Simpson welcomes the move, writing: “This InfraStrata project is unique in the UK. It is expected to make available 25% of the natural gas storage capacity for all of the union.

“There are only two other places in the UK where natural conditions would suit this type of project.”

The News Letter also reports on the takeover, quoting steelworker and employee representative Joe Passmore as saying the workers are hoping to get back to work on Wednesday.

“It vindicates everything we believed in from the start. We know the skills that exist here, we know we can make a success of this,” said Mr Passmore.

According to republicans and senior intelligence figures, the IRA was so compromised by informers at every level that it realised it had to give up violence and move towards politics, it says.

The Daily Mirror leads with the story of a Belfast father who pleaded guilty to a child cruelty charge on Tuesday after his toddler swallowed some of his ecstasy supply.

“Tot ate dad’s drugs” is the headline of the story, which reports that the 14-month-old child suffered seizures after consuming a “significant” quantity of the drugs on 30 January.

She was admitted to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, but recovered within 48 hours, the paper reports.

The 25-year-old defendant, who cannot be named to protect his daughter’s identity, was given 18 months on probation and 100 hours community service.

The Irish News leads with criticism of Boris Johnson over proposed customs checks and carries four pages of reports and analysis on the presentation of the prime minister’s proposals to replace the backstop.

In an editorial, John Manley writes that the UK parliament could be the Republic of Ireland’s “only hope of salvation”.

“Treat with the utmost suspicion anyone who claims to know what is going on this week with the Brexit negotiations,” he writes.

As the potential for a no-deal Brexit increases and the focus returns to Westminster, “Boris Johnson’s government will be able to act unilaterally and in the process show little regard for consequences of the Irish border and both the negative symbolism and practical difficulties its hardening would trigger”.

He writes that parliament, “responsible for so many ills in Ireland, could prove to be the country’s only hope of salvation”.