Decommissioning is back on the agenda. An internal review group set up by the Ulster Unionist Party has expressed "deep unhappiness" at the lack of progress on the arms issue. Its report has already been interpreted as yet another setback for David Trimble. In fact, it is just possible that some move on decommissioning - for example, a further inspection of arms dumps as a quid pro quo for the full implementation of Patten - could provide the confidence-building gesture that the Ulster Unionist leader needs.
On Tuesday the Taoiseach and Mr Trimble seemed determined to put an optimistic spin on things. Both men said that, yes, there were problems but they could be overcome. The Ulster Unionist leader urged us not "to focus too much on Patten". There are a whole range of issues that need to be addressed.
We know what these issues are but, overshadowing all of them, is the need to rebuild the confidence of the moderate unionist community in the Belfast Agreement.
The primary responsibility for doing this lies with the British government and, in particular, with Peter Mandelson. The Secretary of State has been highly visible this week talking up Tony Blair's speech to the Labour Party conference in Brighton. He described the Prime Minister as wanting to engage in "a conversation" with the British people.
Mr Mandelson could do a lot worse than to take the key lines of Mr Blair's speech - "I am listening. I hear. I get the message" - as a mantra for his own job in Northern Ireland. It is an insult to the unionist electorate to attempt to explain away the result of the by-election in South Antrim as being due to the absence of any pro-agreement unionist candidate.
During the selection process the local unionist party rejected one of Mr Trimble's closest aides in favour of David Burnside. Even so, the voters chose Willie McCrea. This was a message, sent via the ballot box, which neither government can afford to ignore.
Peter Mandelson's appointment to the Belfast job was widely seen as a major concession to David Trimble and his supporters. His job was to bring back on board moderate unionists who had voted, albeit reluctantly, for the Belfast Agreement. It was always obvious they were going to need a great deal of coaxing and reassurance to acquiesce in the kind of changes that were envisaged in the accord. That is why Tony Blair spent so much time in the province campaigning for a Yes vote in 1998.
Since his arrival Mr Mandelson has deployed his famed political skills and shown some courage, for example, in the way he went ahead with the suspension of the Executive in the face of strong opposition from the Irish Government. What he has failed to do is to reach out to so-called ordinary people - particularly in the unionist community - and convince them that, although change may be very painful, it will deliver lasting political stability.
That is an important part of the job for any British minister in Belfast, and it is unfortunate that Peter Mandelson has so often given the impression of talking to the quarrelsome natives from a considerable height. (This comment, incidentally, is relatively restrained because I know him personally to be different from this image.)
Whatever the reasons, the British government has lost the confidence of the broad unionist community which has said so, quite clearly, in the South Antrim vote. Yet there is little sign that either Tony Blair or Peter Mandelson is listening. On the contrary, they seem to be looking to Bertie Ahern to put pressure on the SDLP and Sinn Fein to agree to changes on policing, in order to help Mr Trimble.
Brian Cowen has been criticised as being "too green" in his handling of Northern Ireland. But the Minister for Foreign Affairs has managed to hold Gerry Adams and his supporters in line, no mean feat at a time when there is also growing anger within the republican community at the lack of progress on certain aspects of the agreement.
Bertie Ahern was playing his cards very close to his chest on Tuesday after his meeting with David Trimble. But the relationship between the two men has been one of the cornerstones of the agreement, and the Ulster Unionist leader sounded more hopeful that the obstacles ahead could be overcome after his discussion with the Taoiseach.
Both men stressed that a number of issues had been discussed including the rise in loyalist violence, the threat from dissident republican groups and, crucially, decommissioning.
Both the Taoiseach and Mr Cowen have been absolutely firm that Patten must be implemented in full. Anything less, they argue, would result in Sinn Fein refusing to support the new police force. This could lead to dissident republican groups targeting members of the force as "unacceptable" to the nationalist community.
Decommissioning is a different matter. The IRA has already pledged to put its arms beyond use and has allowed international inspectors to visit some of its dumps. The most likely scenario now is that the Government will put pressure on Sinn Fein to ask the IRA to allow another inspection, to show that the arms remain secure.
There is an almost surreal atmosphere around the peace process at the moment. The meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council in Dublin this week, the announcement of members of the Civic Forum in Belfast - these provide visible evidence that the structures of government are working well. But the storm clouds are gathering within unionism.
It has been suggested in recent days that David Trimble is not indispensable. Well, no, nobody is. But his departure, particularly if it were to be seen as a victory for the No forces within unionism, would be a very damaging blow to the agreement. That is why it is so important to rebuild the confidence of the unionist community. If Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson are too busy with New Labour's election strategy to devote the time necessary to achieve this, then Irish nationalism must take on the task.