NEW Secretary of State Julian Smith has held separate meetings with the five main political parties.
Mr Smith will now lead the all-party talks process in the hope of reaching a deal to restore the north's institutions.
He also met Tanaiste Simon Coveney who accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of deliberately setting the UK on "a collision course" with Ireland and the EU.
Sinn Féin spoke about Brexit and the consequences of the UK leaving the EU.
Party president Mary Lou McDonald said she pressed Mr Smith on Irish unity and challenged him on the DUP's confidence and supply agreement with the Conservatives.
"We have stepped through all of the issues with him and obviously the outstanding rights issues and the issues that need to be resolved to ensure that the institutions can be restored, and that, crucially, we can deliver inclusive, sustainable and good government for every citizen living in this part of Ireland," she said.
"He is aware of the issues. He is aware that they have been well rehearsed. He's aware that this process of talks and negotiations has, to use his term, ebbed and flowed."
DUP leader Arlene Foster spoke to Mr Smith by telephone as she was "unable" to be in Belfast.
"The biggest single issue facing Northern Ireland is the ongoing need to have decisions made which impact on our schools, roads and hospitals," she said.
"I assured the secretary of state that we will work earnestly to have the institutions restored. We have not placed any red-lines or pre-conditions to an executive being formed.
"I want to see devolution restored and decisions taken locally in Northern Ireland. If that does not happen, then it will be necessary for all decisions to be taken at Westminster."
Ulster Unionist assembly member Doug Beattie said Mr Smith cannot "sop" to the DUP. He urged him to ramp up the talks process and give clear structure.
"What he cannot do is ignore the smaller parties and think he's going to bounce us at the very end of this process and expect us to jump in," Mr Beattie added.
"There is an issue of governance and an issue of transparency, and we want to see those addressed properly.
"He needs to be proactive and, if he is not, he will fall in exactly the same way as the last secretary of state fell."
Alliance leader Naomi Long said her party laid bare the impact of a no-deal Brexit on Northern Ireland, both politically and socially.
She said: "We set out for him very clearly how we see things in Northern Ireland, the importance of getting an executive restored, the difficulty of doing that in the context of Brexit and now the rumours of a general election.
"We made it clear that Theresa May finally realised that was not a prospect which would work in terms of Northern Ireland and we now need him to be stressing that reality to the prime minister."
SDLP deputy leader Nichola Mallon said: "We had one simple but important question - is he going to be part of the solution or is he going to be part of the problem?"
She claimed there is "widespread concern" that he was given the position to be Mr Johnson's "yes man" to the DUP.
In the first meeting between Irish and British government ministers since Mr Johnson's appointment, Mr Coveney stressed the need to restore Stormont.
He said the prime minister's comments on Brexit were "unhelpful".
"He seems to have made a deliberate decision to set Britain on a collision course with the EU and Ireland in relation to the Brexit negotiations. Only he can answer the question as to why he is doing that," Mr Coveney said.
"From a Brexit negotiating perspective, it was a bad day yesterday and we will have to wait and see if that message coming from London changes in the weeks ahead."
