With the agreement in the small hours of yesterday morning on North-South bodies and on proposed new ministries, the parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly have recorded a measure of progress that seemed unlikely just a few short days ago. In the atmosphere of recrimination which followed the Nobel award ceremonies in Oslo and the IRA's reiteration of its unwillingness to disarm, it appeared unlikely that the shape of these structures could be agreed before Christmas. In turn, this would have pushed back the timetable for the transfer of power as envisaged under the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
Until late on Thursday, this had been a nerve-wracking period for the peace process - arguably its most gloomy since the May referendums. The frustration and tetchiness of the political leaders were tangible. Mr Blair's impatience was beginning to show as was the Taoiseach's irritation. Sinn Fein spokesmen began to warn of the peace process unravelling. In all the circumstances, it was important that a sense of stability and progress be restored before the Christmas hiatus.
That consensus could be reached, despite such tensions, on the establishment of six North-South bodies and 10 Ministries under the new Executive, is a timely reminder of the underlying strength of the Agreement. What has been now agreed represents compromise all round. The SDLP and Sinn Fein would have preferred North-South bodies with a much stronger economic remit and a wider scope. The Ulster Unionists would have preferred fewer Ministries in order to minimise the opportunities for Sinn Fein participation in the administration. The I-win-all-you-lose-all school of politics in Northern Ireland has been replaced by an understanding that political power now has to be shared on a give-and-take basis.
It is surely a significant day when politics in Northern Ireland focuses on issues of everyday relevance to the lives of ordinary people, rather than upon confrontation. European development, food safety, inland waterways, tourism - all impact upon the prosperity of the community, its quality of life, the future which it offers to its children. This is the very essence of what the Agreement signed on Good Friday last is supposed to be about.
But consensus on North-South bodies and on future Ministries does not solve the impasse over decommissioning and Mr Trimble's refusal to have Sinn Fein in executive office. It must, nevertheless, help to narrow the differences on the argument. It means that there are now two seats in the administration which are awaiting their Sinn Fein occupants. As the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, put it yesterday, if Sinn Fein feels that it needs something tangible with which to approach the IRA on decommissioning it is there in what has now been agreed. It will be interesting to see whether Sinn Fein will respond to the Taoiseach's urging or whether there will be an attempt to move the goal posts - perhaps a new argument that no decommissioning is possible until the Patten Commission has reported on the RUC or until the 130,000 legally-held firearms are taken in.
But with the first weapons - those of the LVF - being destroyed yesterday under the supervision of General John de Chastelain, the day of an IRA gesture on decommissioning must come closer. With other republican splinter groups proclaiming their aim of making further attacks and with rival loyalist gangs claiming responsibility for a pub bombing on Wednesday, the spectre of violence has not been banished. It is as well, as the season of peace and goodwill approaches, that the politicians have been able to demonstrate that they still have the initiative and that the plans for lasting peace are on course.