In spite of Jim Allister's opposition, the set-up of a bill of rights committee is ushered through by MLAs on an oral vote.

The motion put before the assembly is below:

The committee will be made of two DUP MLAs, two Sinn Féin MLAs and one MLA from each of the SDLP, UUP and Alliance Party.

The TUV's Jim Allister raises a concern about the next item of business - a motion to establish an ad-hoc committee to consider the creation of a bill of rights.

He is concerned that the assembly is unable to debate or amend the motion - all MLAs can do is vote on it.

Mr Allister is also unhappy that the members to sit on the committee will never be brought to the house, adding: "All we have is the carve up between the parties and they then choose the individuals."

Image source, NI Assembly

Speaker Alex Maskey has a "certain empathy" with Mr Allister's position.

He says the motion is in order but he will go back to the business committee to discuss it for future reference.

Mr Allister says the assembly "could well arrive at the farcical situation where an ad-hoc committee to deal with human rights issues could be peopled in part by human rights abusers", adding that "convicted terrorists" could well be appointed.

Speaker Alex Maskey begins with a word of thanks to MLAs on the assembly's scrutiny committees and to assembly staff for their work to get through the "significant amount" of secondary legislation that was put in place by executive departments during the three-year absence of Stormont.

Image source, NI Assembly

Since the assembly's return, plenary sessions in the chamber have only taken place once a week to allow time for that scrutiny.

Mr Maskey tells the assembly that the usual arrangement of two plenary sessions - one on Mondays, one of Tuesday - will take effect again this week.

Image source, NI Assembly

You can watch the proceedings live by clicking on the play button on the video at the top of this page.

Northern Ireland Assembly

MLAs will file into the chamber in the next few minutes for what looks like a busy day dominated by financial matters, as you can see from the timetable below. So, what's coming up?

Firstly a committee will be set up to look at the establishment of a bill of rights.

Then its over to Finance Minister Conor Murphy to put forward two motions for debate.

The first relates to the retrospective approval of the movement of funds between departments in the latest monitoring round, while the second forms part of the Budget Bill (more on that later).

Image source, NI Asembly

When it comes to question time, Economy Minister Diane Dodds and Education Minister Peter Weir will be answering to MLAs.

Then it'll be back to the debates on the finances.

And the final act will be for Mr Murphy to introduce the Budget Bill, which is up for debate tomorrow.

Image source, Reuters

Welcome to a windswept Stormont estate for Monday's live coverage of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

It's all about money today with some scene-setting business ahead of the big Budget Bill debate tomorrow.

We've also got question time with the ministers for the economy and education.

It all kicks off shortly at 12:00 so stay with us throughout the day if you can.