An intensive series of signing ceremonies and inaugural meetings is expected to begin later this week, marking the establishment of the new political institutions set up by the Belfast Agreement.
However, the Northern Ireland Assembly must get through a procedurally difficult day today before nominating the members of the new all-party executive.
The Assembly will first debate a motion which would allow for the reinstatement of Mr Seamus Mallon as Deputy First Minister. It is then likely to debate a DUP motion calling for the exclusion of Sinn Fein from office on the grounds that it is not committed to non-violence.
Observers believe that these two motions may delay until midnight or later the triggering of the d'Hondt mechanism which will allow the selection of members of the North's historic power-sharing executive involving republicans and unionists.
After selection of the executive Queen Elizabeth will sign the devolution order on Wednesday, transferring power to the new institutions established under the Belfast Agreement. This will come into effect at midnight.
The following morning the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, will attend a 9 a.m. ceremony at Iveagh House in Dublin where, before an invited audience, they will sign the new British-Irish agreement arising from the Belfast Agreement. They will also formally exchange documents notifying each other that all requirements for the devolution of power to the new institutions have been met.
Immediately after this the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, will sign the orders required under Irish law to allow for the establishment of the North-South bodies. The British government will fulfil its own parallel legal requirements.
An IRA statement announcing the appointment of an interlocutor to deal with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning is expected later that morning.
In Belfast the Anglo-Irish Secretariat will formally cease to exist, but will immediately become the secretariat of a new British-Irish Intergovernmental Council. The new executive, with powers devolved to it, will meet for the first time.
Within a week the Taoiseach and the North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, will lead their respective delegations at an inaugural meeting of the North-South ministerial council. That meeting is expected to make decisions about the staffing and location of the six new North-South implementation bodies, which currently operate on an interim basis.
The new British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference is to have its first meeting during the week beginning December 13th.