Stormont: Politicians can breathe but not relax

There's a familiar look about the Assembly Chamber at Stormont this week - it's empty.

OK, cheap shot alert - they will be back after the Easter recess.

There's a debate to be had about the possible merits of assembly members forgoing the two-week break only seven weeks after returning from a two-year suspension but this is not the place.

Instead, let's look at how they've done since the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) ended its boycott.

I asked a colleague to list the achievements so far. He said: "It's survived."

Which is true, but perhaps not entirely fair.

If this was an end-of-term school report it would be "satisfactory".

Though marks would be added for good behaviour.

The head prefects have even had a highly successful school trip - to the United States - and taken part in some unusual extra-curricular activities.

There was a potentially awkward moment when it looked like Michelle O'Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly were, for once, going to do separate interviews after meeting the Queen at Hillsborough.

We asked why - and there was a last minute rethink, which may mean something or nothing.

Certainly there's nothing to suggest relations are anything but cordial.

The relationship "is not warm but it's not cold either" said someone who spends a lot of time in their orbit.

First Minister Michelle O'Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly met Queen Camilla on her visit to Northern Ireland

So back to those achievements of Stormont reborn.

Or, to put it another way, what, if anything, has changed?

Well, offers have been made in an effort to settle several public-sector pay disputes. Some successful, some still not.

Ministers have agreed to provide £150m to build the Strule Shared Education Campus in Omagh.

The executive has discussed the scandalous situation surrounding the defective apartments at Victoria Square though it's far from clear what they're going to - or can - do about it.

But at least the finance minister was able to announce that Land and Property Services is going to pause the issuing of rates bills this year.

All of these things fall into the category of "easy wins".

And they would certainly not have happened were we still beholden to the blink and you'll miss it "rule" which went before.

More difficult may be the task of agreeing a budget before the end of April.

Then there's the absolute minefield of Casement Park, which will not wait much longer and threatens to cause a major rift between Sinn Féin and the DUP.

There was a hint of the bad old days when the DUP revisited the issue of EU involvement in Northern Ireland on the last sitting day before recess.

Let's spare you the details (anything called an applicability motion defies mass appeal) but the upshot is the DUP laid down a marker by vetoing a new EU law from applying here.

Some of the other parties, with possible justification, claimed it was all to do with the DUP's internal issues over post-Brexit trading arrangements and the decision to restart devolution.

It hasn't gone away you know.

Hard times to come?

Expect more of this. What happens if the Westminster government were to overrule Stormont on a similar issue in future?

What would be the DUP's response?

And we await with interest to see what happens the first time the DUP attempts to pull the Stormont Brake, which cannot be far off.

So seven weeks in, Stormont's inhabitants - and those who care about its survival - can breathe but not relax.

The really hard bit is undoubtedly still to come.