The issue of the "disappeared" is returning to the political agenda as Assembly members prepare to take their summer holidays this Friday.
DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley, based on a deathbed wish of the late Mgr Denis Faul, is shortly to meet the mother of Columba McVeigh, who was murdered by the IRA in 1975 but whose body is still missing.
Last week Dr Paisley said that Mgr Faul, through an intermediary, made a dying call to him "not to give in" until the remaining bodies of the "disappeared" were recovered and accorded Christian burials.
Dr Paisley has agreed to meet Ms Vera McVeigh, who said she believed he would do all that he could to locate her son's body. Her 17-year-old son from Donaghmore, Co Tyrone, was kidnapped, killed and secretly buried in 1975.
In 1999 the IRA offered to help in locating the bodies of nine people it admitted it had killed and secretly buried during the Troubles.
Three bodies were recovered that year, while Jean McConville's body was found in 2003.
The body of Gareth O'Connor from Armagh, believed to be a victim of the IRA, who was not on the list of nine and who went missing in 2003, was recovered last year.
The now wound-up Families of the Disappeared believes there are at least six other missing people murdered by paramilitaries.
DUP sources indicated that Dr Paisley, as well as meeting Ms McVeigh, was prepared to assist other families of the "disappeared" if they sought his help.
Dr Paisley has also indicated that he will pursue this matter, which could become part of a list of issues to be resolved before there is any deal to restore the Northern Executive and Assembly.
Sinn Féin's chief negotiator Martin McGuinness, who is in Sri Lanka offering his advice on its peace process, said yesterday that republicans had not given up hope that the issue of the "disappeared" would be resolved.
Mr McGuinness said Sinn Féin would continue to try to help the victims' families.
"We have been partially successful in that there have been a number of cases resolved as a result of the endeavours of republicans," he told BBC Radio Ulster from Sri Lanka yesterday.
"But we are not satisfied with that.
"We want to continue to appeal to people to help in whatever way they can to ensure that families like the McVeighs can find some comfort after the terrible ordeal they have been through over the course of many decades," he added.
Meanwhile, Assembly members will meet in plenary session at Stormont on Friday and then take their summer holidays through to September, Northern Secretary Peter Hain has announced.
However, following on the summer work plan laid out for MLAs by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British prime minister Tony Blair last week, Mr Hain yesterday directed that three special Assembly sub-committees be formed to work through July and August and into September.
The Assembly will rise on Friday evening to return on September 4th, giving MLAs less than three months to agree a devolution deal by the governments' deadline of November 24th.