Devolution deadline to be written into law
The North's November devolution deadline will be written into emergency legislation.
The political parties have until November 24 to agree on their line-up of ministers.
Northern Secretary Peter Hain has confirmed he will be bringing a Bill before the Westminster parliament soon after Easter.
Speaking on Radio Ulster, Mr Hain said: "It’ll be in the statute, there’ll be no shifting from it, if everything collapses by then, then it will collapse, and there’ll be no coming back.
"There’ll be no point in any party taking us up to the eleventh hour on the 24th November and then expecting the Prime Ministers or myself to draw back and say, ‘you’ve got a few months boys carry on’, that’ll be that."
The Northern Secretary says it would be a dream if the North's parties could reach agreement on the make-up of a power-sharing executive when the Assembly reconvenes in May.
But Peter Hain says he is not sure there is enough trust between them to achieve that.
The parties will have six weeks to elect their ministers before the autumn deadline kicks in.
Mr Hain says plans are already being made for an inter-governmental conference in June if the first phase of the plan for restoring devolution fails.
