Media and public reaction to the ‘New Decade, New Approach’ deal that has restored devolved government to Northern Ireland has been largely positive, supportive and welcoming. The significant roles of Simon Coveney and Julian Smith from the Irish and British governments have been recognised and rightly applauded. It seems these grown-up statesmen succeeded in creating the appropriate balance of carrot and stick to concentrate the minds of our local politicians.

However, the restoration of devolution comes with some significant notes of caution.

Firstly, the motives for the key players to get it together again are worth considering.

Dr Katy Hayward in The Guardian wrote that Sinn Féin and the DUP were “gripped by the fear of new Assembly elections,” resulting in a compromise to get the institutions up and running again. Others have wondered what the DUP has gained by not agreeing to Sinn Féin’s original requests which led to the collapse in the first place, and what benefits Sinn Féin has now garnered.

Events at the ballot box in December may well have made the two big parties sit up and take notice. The increasingly hostile and angry reaction of the public, particularly with regard to the crisis in the health service, has certainly played a part. The future publication of Sir Patrick Coghlin’s report into RHI may also have focused minds, particularly those of some special advisers. Of course, setting these incentives aside for a moment, there is also a discernible impetus – genuine political will – in a number of quarters to actually get back to governing.

Secondly, the financial underpinning of the whole edifice has come in for some close scrutiny.

Ministers have signed up to a “gargantuan wish list” without knowing how it will be funded, says Sam McBride who in Burned warned that the RHI ‘cash for ash’ debacle would come back to bite the members of the Executive when they next approached Westminster with their begging bowl.

Meanwhile, Brian Rowan says that the Stormont sums are not adding up and that more negotiations will be needed. Noted economist, Dr Edmond Bernie has warned Boris Johnston that it will take at least £5bn to get Northern Ireland on its feet again after three years without a government. Conor Murphy, the new Finance Minister, poured some cold water on the general enthusiasm in saying the financial package is not enough, but struck an optimistic note after a “warm” reception at the Treasury.

Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill say they want the British government to “honour its financial commitments.” The PM himself says it’s about “leadership,” not just funding, and took or shook the hand of history off Tony Blair’s shoulder to let it beckon him and us into a bright new future or blinding light… or something like that.

So, where does that leave us then?

Well, a devolved government is back up and running and we should see some local decisions made pretty soon to ease the logjam. Pay parity for health staff and some capital development projects in education have already been the focus of new ministerial announcements. We can expect more soon.

A row over funding looks set to continue between Stormont and Westminster. This gives local parties an opportunity to find common ground. The New Decade, New Approach document does at least promise a heightened degree of scrutiny from across the water for financial matters, and we should not forget that the Irish government has pledged to send a tranche of money up north to help out.

Both the DUP and Sinn Féin see it in their short-term interests to be seen to be working together constructively and at the minute neither wants to be blamed for collapsing Stormont again. However, they remain ideologically opposed, have conflicting views on a whole range of policy issues and don’t trust each other as far as you could throw a wood pellet boiler. It is indeed a strange sort of government with potentially feuding ministries led by different parties, which Sam McBride has called a coalition of the unwilling.

How far the presence of the other parties, now with ministries of their own, acts to oil the wheels of government remains to be seen. How far the absence of an opposition leads to reduced scrutiny of governmental decision making is also a moot point. At the very least we should expect civil servants to start taking minutes again.

Identity issues, like legislating for the Irish language and Ulster Scots, haven’t gone away, and it remains to be seen how the twin language packages in the agreement work out in practice. Opposition to the Irish language provisions, spearheaded by the Orange Order, seems to stem from several arguments. One is financial, in that some think the money used to translate and produce documentation might be better spent elsewhere.

Another is the alleged ‘weaponisation’ of the language by some on the republican side where it is said to function to isolate and antagonise others as much as providing a cultural identity. The role of predominantly Presbyterian clergy in preserving the Irish language in Ulster seems to have been missed or forgotten by the loyalist opposition and it is not clear whether or not what has been agreed thus far will prevent this issue reverting to a sectarian war of, er… words.

The election in the South will occupy Sinn Féin’s attention for a while, but the looming Brexit iceberg sits directly ahead for all of the parties. Expect fireworks but not of the celebratory kind, when it comes to the impact on Northern Ireland of the negotiated trade deal between the UK and the EU. The Irish border, the Irish Sea border, the Scottish-English border could all figure prominently in the months and years ahead. The EU itself has been a staunch supporter of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement, so expect comment and indeed influence to continue to come from that quarter too.

If the Republic doesn’t really want the return of the six counties and the Tory Brexiteers want to make England great again without the apparently costly annex of Northern Ireland, maybe our politicians will have little choice but try and make Northern Ireland/the North of Ireland work for all of us for the foreseeable future.

How ironic it would be if, ultimately, the Irish Republic could not support northern republicans’ calls for a border poll on Irish unity and at the same time the loyalists had no Britain left to be loyal to. Or, a more profound irony might be to find ourselves in a world facing climate change, global warming and sea level rises and we, on the northern tip of this small green island on the outskirts of Europe, are still arguing about how much the rest of the world will pay us to live together in peace.

The late Seamus Mallon once said, “I don’t care what you call this place, as long as it has one name: home.” Perhaps the real test of the ‘New Decade, New Approach’ deal will be if our present political leaders truly aspire to deliver for everyone – not out of forced necessity, but because they want to make this place work.