The SDLP today insisted it would refuse to take part in an assembly without full powers.
The party's deputy leader Alasdair McDonnell claimed Stormont would become a farcical side show if MLAs could not change laws.
Mr McDonnell said the SDLP would not take part in committees unless there was a possibility of reversing decisions made by direct rule ministers. Otherwise, he said, the committees would be meaningless.
"If Peter Hain is saying to us, 'yes, I'll allow you guys to make decisions on education and I'll allow you guys to reverse some of the decisions my ministers have taken', that's fine, then we will engage," he told BBC Radio Ulster.
"If it is just a question of having a pre-school play group, we have no interest."
The British and Irish governments have agreed a deadline of November 24 thto restore devolution. The assembly will sit on May 15th with parties being given six weeks to elect an executive. MLAs will then be given a further three months after the summer recess to form a multi-party devolved government. But if it fails the governments have promised to implement a plan B.
The south Belfast MP insisted an assembly without without full powers would be a charade, insulting to his party and insulting to the public. And he reiterated: "We are not prepared to engage in farcical side shows and that's effectively what we have been offered at the moment."
Mr McDonnell said devolution was the only way Northern Ireland's many social problems would be solved. "It's not about having a talking shop. It's not about trying things for the optics, it's about trying things for serious business," he said.
He urged the Democratic Unionist Party to grab this chance for devolution.
"The reality is that if the DUP insist on sabotaging what we have got, if the DUP insist on sabotaging the Assembly and institutions that flowed from the Good Friday Agreement then somebody has to take charge, somebody has to move the process on."
PA