The position of the DUP on powersharing should become evident soon, writes Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor
Today's order paper for the Northern Ireland Assembly, the first since October 2002, contains just three items.
The Speaker's Business will allow the Alliance party's Eileen Bell to utter her first words from the chair having taken over from Lord Alderdice. She is expected to read a statement from Northern Secretary Peter Hain, who now has enhanced powers over Northern Ireland following the enactment of recent legislation - including the authority to delay the next scheduled Assembly election or scrap it altogether.
The roll of membership will then be taken. By "signing-on" the 108 Assembly members, 40 of them appearing in the chamber for the first time following the 2003 election, will declare whether they are unionist, nationalist or other.
This will be followed by the adjournment, but probably only after a minute's silence in memory of Ballymena teenager Michael McIlveen who died a week ago today after being killed in a sectarian attack. Events in the chamber are not expected to take long and there will be no debate allowing many members to make the half-hour drive to Hillsborough Castle in the afternoon for a royal garden party in the presence of Prince Charles and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall.
Media interest in the proceedings is expected to be significant, but much more politicking is expected in Stormont's Great Hall as the party delegations make clear their starkly differing positions before they walk the few steps into the chamber which has lain silent for more than three-and-a-half years.
Once inside, the power shift that manifested itself in both communities will become clear. The Sinn Féin members, now numbering 24, will now sit to the Speaker's left directly opposite the DUP group with its 32 members. The parties they eclipsed, the SDLP and Ulster Unionists, have 18 and 24 members respectively. However, Progressive Unionist leader David Ervine has said he will sit with the Ulster Unionist group following a decision by his party.
This will entitle the UUP group to claim a third ministry at the expense of Sinn Féin in the event of an Executive being formed under the convoluted rules of the d'Hondt mechanism, which allocates ministerial positions based on overall party strength.
The UUP has been severely criticised by the SDLP and Sinn Féin, who have accused Sir Reg Empey's party of double standards in co-operating with a party associated with the UVF which is not on ceasefire.
The remainder of the seats in the chamber will be taken by the six Alliance members and just three Independents - unionist Paul Berry who resigned from the DUP following allegations about his private life; Robert McCartney of the United Kingdom Unionists; and Dr Kieran Deeny, who won a seat in West Tyrone as a hospitals candidate.
The Assembly has six weeks in which to elect a First and Deputy First Minister, but the two governments have agreed members will have up until November 24th to reach agreement, otherwise the doors will close and salaries and allowances will be stopped.
A first vote for the joint office of First and Deputy First Ministers will be held next Monday and is all but certain not to succeed.
Differences divide the parties as to the purpose of the Assembly in the meantime. Sinn Féin and the SDLP are deeply critical of the Hain plan for the Assembly which has little real power.
Republicans say they have no interest in a unionist-dominated and powerless talking shop, which they say is a departure from the Belfast Agreement. The SDLP appears to favour a wait-and-see approach.
The DUP sees much merit in discussing bread and butter issues and has called on sceptical nationalists to address local government reform, water charges, rising rates and other topics.
To that end, a motion on the establishment of a working party of members to address the economy will be debated tomorrow.
Efforts by Mr Hain to find topics of debate for the Assembly, prompted by visits by Scottish First minister Jack McConnell among others, may keep members talking while the real business of finding an accord on sharing power at executive level is worked out.
It may soon become evident if this week's exchanges at Stormont are the first small steps in the direction of full-scale devolution, or a final indication that power sharing is doomed for years.