On his last day in office the DUP's deputy leader talks to Alison Healy about his emotions as he resigns his ministerial post in the Executive
You would expect that Mr Peter Robinson would have mixed emotions about the DUP's decision to resign from the Northern Ireland Executive tomorrow.
As Minister for Regional Development, he has been described as one of the most impressive members of the Executive yet his party's actions will take that role from him. But he maintains that this has been a good week. "I think the veil had to be lifted," he says.
"I think that we have to start a new process towards a new agreement and the sooner that starts the better. So in that context, it is a good week."
It has also been a busy week, as he tries to make decisions that will give officials enough work to last weeks and even months. "The previous practice under suspension was that direct rule ministers were reluctant to take any policy decisions within the departments for returning ministers," he says.
The use of the word "returning" suggests that he may be back in office. "It is imperative that the Assembly returns," he says "but not in its current form. No one in their right mind would want to return to a structure that went from one crisis to another over the four years of its existence".
If the Belfast Agreement is the only show in town "it's a pretty poor one when you look at what's been happening," he says. Yesterday was a day for tying up loose ends at the Department for Regional Development on Belfast's Adelaide Road.
Before that, Mr Robinson went down to Cluan Place where an interface fence was being erected after disturbances between loyalists and nationalists.
A television crew doing a fly-on-the-wall documentary about Stormont spent some of the afternoon in his office while he squeezed in a BBC interview between meetings with officials and delegations.
His permanent secretary, Mr Stephen Quinn, discussed decisions on issues ranging from transport to sewerage to the legalities surrounding gates on alleys.
Without any notes, Mr Robinson moved smoothly through the issues, showing the decision-making skills that have been widely praised during his term in office.
There was an insight into his working style when his special adviser, Mr Richard Bullick, pondered on the fact that the office may be without a minister if the Executive is not suspended until Tuesday. "The office would be without a minister if I went on holidays," Mr Robinson said and everyone around the table laughed at the suggestion that the minister might take a holiday. "That has never happened," his special adviser remarked drily.
Mr Robinson grew up with "fairly critical view" of civil servants and says some of it was justified, as some officials were almost acting in a ministerial capacity under direct rule. Now, he recognises the "enormous ability and enthusiasm" of officials.
"I come away with a much higher respect for the civil service than when I entered." Mr Robinson believes much has been achieved in a department that did not have even have a transport strategy until recently.
"So though I walk out that door at lunch time on Friday, the reality is that the policies that have been set down will be policies that will see through the next ten or 25 years." But will he be disappointed to walk out the door?
"If I see the future as being one where we can get structures in Northern Ireland that can enjoy the support of the whole community then I'll not be sorry because we will be moving towards something that can be ultimately much more to the advantage of the people of Northern Ireland."
He does not see this as an end to devolution. "I see it as the start of a process that will bring real and more effective devolution to Northern Ireland." Fresh elections followed by a negotiating process will "recast the deal in a way that will be satisfactory not just to nationalists but to unionists as well", he says.
Looking to those elections, Mr Robinson says the DUP enjoyed a "massive increase in support" in the local elections last year and that trend has continued. He "rather suspects" that Sinn Féin's support will increase at the next election. "And that is one of the set of circumstances that has to be taken into account in any new structure. . . it must be able to survive any result out of an election contest."
With yet another setback to the peace process, does he ever envisage peace in Northern Ireland? "I'm not sure that peace is attainable anywhere in the globe," he says.
"Can we have communities living side by side with each other?
"Yes, that is attainable and I think stable political structures play an important part in the process that will lead to that."