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People Before Profit assembly member Gerry Carroll says any appeal from Stormont to the prime minister about public finances "will be insufficient" in protecting public services.

“Our public services are in serious danger and polite appeals to the Tories will not save them,” he says.

In their letter to the prime minister, the executive says a £3.3bn financial package from the UK government "will only serve to provide a short-term solution to the pressing issues we now face".

Mr Carroll adds: "There must be no honeymoon period for this new administration and the trade union movement needs to organise for the battles to come."

Image source, Oliver McVeigh/PA

Jim Allister tells BBC NI’s Stephen Nolan programme that he “will fight with his tongue” when asked about comments by the Speaker of the Assembly, DUP assembly member Edwin Poots.

On Saturday, the Traditional Unionist Voice leader told Poots that “Mr Seismic” had become “Mr Speaker” - as he previously said there would have to be a “seismic” change in the Windsor framework to bring the DUP back to Stormont .

On Monday morning, Poots told BBC News NI: "I couldn't respond to Mr Allister and he would have had his clock cleaned if I could have.

"People will judge for themselves without me getting into the politics of it," the Speaker added, "and we need to make progress in this country".

Allister tells The Nolan Show: “I think it was most unbecoming for someone in his place.

“But it was a telling insight of a man who is supposed to rule impartially and to give me a fair crack of the whip in the Assembly.”

Allister adds: “I will fight with my tongue, with my intellect. I will leave it to Mr Poots to try and go for brawn."

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After having no devolved government in almost two years, budget pressures have mounted up and there is no shortage of challenges facing the new ministers.

There are two pressing priorities: setting a budget for the new financial year in April and settling the public sector pay disputes which led to a huge strike in January.

Northern Ireland’s health service has the worst waiting lists in the UK and its staff are paid less than their NHS colleagues in Great Britain.

Top of the pile for Health Minister Robin Swann will be securing pay parity for health workers and attracting more staff to help clear the backlog of patients waiting on treatment.

Education is Stormont’s second biggest spending sector but teachers were among those who took part in the public sector strikes, as their pay has also fallen behind their Great Britain counterparts.

Throw in demands for money for new school buildings, youth services and school transport and the new Education Minister Paul Givan has plenty of homework on his plate.

Read more about Stormont ministers’ priorities.

Taoiseach (Irish PM) Leo Varadkar arrives at Stormont Castle where he meets the first and deputy first ministers.

Sara Girvin
BBC News Ireland Correspondent

Politics students at Lagan College in Belfast have been watching the events of the weekend.

It's Northern Ireland's first planned integrated school - set up in the 1980s specifically to educate Catholics and Protestants together.

So what do the 17 and 18-year-olds make of the past week?

Terri-Anne says: "It's almost like you're ashamed to be from here sometimes, just because of the way the government get on, like children.

"People say to themselves, the government won't last long and probably in a year or two's time there will be another problem for them to kick up a fuss about," adds Jacob.

Jack explains: "Personally I don't want to have to leave here, I want to actually work and get this place to work for everyone."

Ryan says he thinks the sectarian divides of Northern Ireland's past can still be felt today.

"I think it's embedded in all of us a wee tiny bit," he continues.

Read more here.

Rishi Sunak leaves Stormont Castle where he met Northern Ireland Executive ministers on Monday morning.

Image source, PRESS EYE/KEVIN BOYES/PA

There is an extra seat at the Northern Ireland Executive table on Monday as Rishi Sunak joins ministers during his Stormont visit.

He sits between the new Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly (left) and First Minister Michelle O'Neill.

Image source, Press Eye/PA

Sunak tells executive ministers they can restore people’s faith in politics as “a force for good”.

“I absolutely believe that you will be able to do that,” he adds.

“To make sure we can demonstrate that power-sharing works and in doing demonstrate that politics can change people’s lives.”

Image source, Oliver McVeigh/PA

Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie says he isn't expecting an announcement about money any time soon.

He adds it's important the Executive gets funding over and above the promised £3.3bn, which he says is a good starting point.

On Saturday, his party colleague Robin Swann returned to the health minister role which he held throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, up until the collapse of the Executive.

"Sir Jeffrey spoke to me and he said: 'If you really want health we will allow you to take it', and he was a man of his word," says Beattie.

"We show political courage and Robin Swann has hit the ground running already. We have a cancer care and elective care strategy good to go," he tells The Nolan Show.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is meeting Northern Ireland's new First Minister Michelle O'Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly.

He left Parliament Buildings to travel the short distance to Stormont Castle, home to the Northern Ireland Executive, joined by Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.

Watch the latest developments by clicking the play button at the top of this page.

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Prime Minister Rishi Sunak began his visit to Northern Ireland on Sunday, meeting volunteers and crew at the Air Ambulance charity.

He said the restoration of devolved government was "a fantastic cause for optimism".

"Everyone has worked really hard to bring this moment about, everyone is committed to making it work," he added.

After the PM's meetings with political leaders at Stormont on Monday he will carry out a number of other community engagements.

Independent unionist assembly member Claire Sugden says an all-female executive office is symbolically important, but must go much further.

The Executive Office, unlike the rest of Stormont's nine departments, consists of two parties who jointly run it and any decision requires sign-off from both of them.

It now consists of First Minister Michelle O'Neill (Sinn Féin), Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly (DUP), and junior ministers Aisling Reilly (Sinn Féin) and Pam Cameron (DUP).

"Symbolically, yes, it's important but it has to be much more than faces at the table," Sugden tells BBC Radio Foyle's The North West Today.

Sugden says that as a mother of an eight-month-old she finds it baffling that Stormont still does not have facilities at Stormont to cater for breastfeeding.

"There has been over six MLAs, I think, in the last number of years that have had babies but we still don't have creche facilities."

Brendan Hughes
BBC News NI political reporter

Ministers in the newly re-established Northern Ireland Executive have been arriving early this morning at Stormont Castle.

The DUP's Gordon Lyons, the new communities minister, was the first seen heading inside.

He was followed by Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald of Sinn Féin and later her party colleague Conor Murphy, who returns to the executive as economy minister.

They were followed by new First Minister Michelle O'Neill of Sinn Féin, her party colleague John O'Dowd, the new infrastructure minister, and Health Minister Robin Swann of the Ulster Unionist Party.

Other arrivals so far have included Jayne Brady, head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, and advisers to the Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.

Chris Mason
Political editor

Like the two sets of parents at a wedding, the British and Irish prime ministers are in Belfast today.

The analogy works, just about, I think, because London and Dublin are co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, the deal signed nearly 26 years ago which provides the foundation for power-sharing devolved government in Northern Ireland.

And, like many a family argument, I detect a splash of irritation in Whitehall that the Irish government is, I hear whispered, muscling in on a moment they think belongs to the prime minister.

After two years of political stasis here, devolved government is up and running again.

Read more here.

Taoiseach (Irish PM) Leo Varadkar has been greeted by Northern Ireland Assembly Speaker Edwin Poots at Stormont.

Sinn Féin's leadership met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday morning at Stormont.

Michelle O'Neill (left), beside Mary Lou McDonald, joined the PM and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.

In a social media post, Ms McDonald, the party's president, says: "Change is all around and must be managed."

She calls for a "shared commitment to partnership and respect at heart of progress".

Image source, Sinn Féin/PA Wire

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Prime Minister Rishi Sunak swapped the green benches of the House of Commons for the blue seats of the Northern Ireland Assembly during his visit to Belfast.

He was accompanied by Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris as the new Assembly Speaker Edwin Poots gave a tour of the chamber.

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

On Saturday, Edwin Poots became the seventh Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly since its founding in 1998, and he has been in the Assembly since then.

On Monday morning he accompanied Prime Minister Rishi Sunak up the Stormont steps.

He says he always enjoys the "cut and thrust" of being on the floor so his new job will be a move away to impartially refereeing.

"I will do everything I can to ensure Northern Ireland moves forward and we will keep real scrutiny on the ministers," he says.

On Saturday, TUV Leader Jim Allister told Poots that “Mr Seismic” had become “Mr Speaker”, as he previously said there would have to be a “seismic” change in the Windsor framework to bring the DUP back to Stormont .

"I couldn't respond to Mr Allister and he would have had his clock cleaned if I could have,” Poots adds.

"People will judge for themselves, without me getting into the politics of it, and we need to make progress in this country."

Image source, Liam McBurney/PA

Justice Minister Naomi Long says "Northern Ireland is under-funded in comparison to need”.

“I don’t think the UK government can acknowledge that and at the same time refuse to solve the problem."

Referring to the Department of Justice brief, which she held in the previous Executive, she adds: “My argument would be that relatively small amounts of uplift to our baseline and justice would resolve most of our issues, including policing numbers.

“And therefore I think it would be wise to invest in that way and avoid justice going off a cliff edge.”

Last week, the PSNI chief constable said a recruitment drive would start in April.

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The SDLP's Matthew O'Toole, the leader of Stormont's opposition, says his party was not told that MLA Justin McNulty was “going to leave” the Assembly on Saturday, “nor was permission sought”.

McNulty has been suspended from the party after quitting Stormont early "without permission" to manage a Laois Gaelic football team.

It later emerged he had driven to County Wexford where his team were playing.

O'Toole said: “Seamus Mallon, our former deputy leader, had a saying which is often quoted still… that the number one rule of politics is to be there. And I’m afraid that rule was broken on Saturday."

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The SDLP leader Colum Eastwood confirms he did not attend Stormont on Saturday because he wanted his opposition leader Matthew O'Toole and his executive team to lead.

"I don't need to micro-manage Matthew, but I am here today to meet with the prime minister and we all have to play our different roles," he tells BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today.

Eastwood is an MP - for Foyle - rather than an MLA.

"For me it's about letting people lead in their moment, I wanted to give Matthew his day and it's important he got to do that but we act as a team and I will be here today working with Matthew to meet with the prime minister and the taoiseach."

He says it is great news that Stormont has been restored, but its two-year absence has been hugely damaging to everyone in Northern ireland.