As another deadline looms in the North's peace process, Assembly members gather this morning for the first full meeting of what could be a short autumn session.
Less than two weeks remain before the Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, must decide again whether to suspend the Assembly or else call elections if it fails to elect a new First and Deputy First Minister. This it will almost certainly fail to do, and as neither government wants Assembly elections, a suspension, ranging from one day to many weeks, is the most likely option.
Little sums up the current state of the peace process better than this afternoon's questions, when Mr David Trimble, the former first minister, makes his first appearance since resigning in early July.
The Ulster Unionist leader will ask his successor, the Acting First Minister, Sir Reg Empey, and former partner as deputy first minister and current acting deputy, Mr Seamus Mallon, questions about paramilitary decommissioning.
Sir Reg and Mr Mallon will also be asked questions ranging from the economy to South America.
Ms Annie Courtney, the SDLP member for Foyle, will ask them to indicate how the revised Programme for Government will address the issue of "the more difficult economic climate predicted for the year ahead".
The UUP member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Ms Joan Carson, will ask the acting First and Deputy First Ministers if their office "has had any contact with the administration of President Bush in respect of the apparent involvement of Irish republicans with Colombian terrorists and, if so, have these contacts suggested that the President shares with me a sense of disappointment at this apparent involvement".
In other questions, Mr Gregory Campbell, the Minister of Regional Development, will be asked by the UUP's Lagan Valley MLA, Mr Ivan Davis, "if he has any plans to have the railway station at Lisburn designated as a stop for express trains from Belfast to Dublin".
The Assembly will debate two private members' motions. The first motion, proposed by Mr Gerry Kelly of Sinn Fein, relates to the dispute at the Holy Cross School. Mr Kelly will propose that the "Assembly supports the right to education of children attending the Holy Cross Primary School in north Belfast".
The second motion, proposed by Mr Ian Paisley jnr, criticises the Irish justice system for its failure to resolve the rape/incest case of Ms Sarah Bland.
Ms Bland was at the centre of a controversy in 1999 when it was alleged she had been subjected to ritualised sexual abuse as a child, in some cases by members of her own extended family.
Despite the involvement of the then justice minister, Ms Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, the Director of Public Prosecutions decided there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.
The Assembly normally sits on Mondays and Tuesdays, but this week will sit for one day only as there is not enough business to warrant a second sitting. All unfinished motions fell at the end of the previous session and must be reintroduced.