Questions about whether the Northern Ireland Protocol could prevent the DUP from going back into power sharing at Stormont have dominated a television pre-election debate.
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson stuck to his guns on the issue, insisting that unionist concerns about the post-Brexit arrangement must be resolved before he will agree to go back into government.
"We're being honest with the electorate because we believe that the political institutions must be sustainable and that means that we have got to deal with the big issues in front of us and not least the harm that the Northern Ireland protocol is doing to undermine political stability in Northern Ireland, to undermine economic stability, it’s changed our constitutional status and we can’t ignore that," he said.
The Lagan Valley MP told the BBC Northern Ireland Leaders' Debate that he was committed to leading the DUP back into the Stormont Executive, but "we must begin with the protocol."
What followed was like a political wresting tag team as he found himself buffeted by his four opponents.
Alliance leader Naomi Long said her party will be ready to return to the Executive on day one after the election and said it would be "obscene" for those elected to take their salaries if the Assembly is not up and running.
"I certainly don't want the embarrassment, frankly, of being an Assembly member again during suspension," she added.
Sinn Féin’s leader in Northern Ireland Michelle O'Neill said it was "unfathomable" for political leaders to tell voters there was not going to be a government on the other side of this election.
She accused the DUP of "holding us all to ransom".
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said politicians north of the border could not wait for a deal between the British government and the European Commission on the protocol.
"The reality is that Jeffrey’s waiting on Boris Johnson to come riding over the hill and save him," he added.
Even when the debate moved on to the cost of living crisis, the protocol was not far away with Mr Donaldson saying the increased checks imposed on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland had added to the cost of goods.
In a clear swipe at the DUP, Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie said "people need to own that failing" for the fact that £300m of funding set aside to help alleviate the cost of living crisis could not be allocated because the Stormont Executive was not functioning.
The decision making Executive collapse when the DUP’s Paul Givan resigned as First Minister.
On the issue of a border poll, Ms O'Neill once again refused to be drawn on a specified date.
Asked whether she wants such a poll to take place after the election, she said she believes that conversation will take place "during the next decade" and that the debate should take place "at the right time."
Mr Donaldson said anyone who thought Sinn Féin would not use a positive result in the election to push for what he labelled "a divisive border poll" was "deluded."
But Mr Beattie insisted that the conditions for a border poll are "not even anywhere close."
He said the issue was being used "to drive people through fear to the polling booth."
Mr Eastwood said his party’s desire for unification was well known but that a border poll "is not today’s issue".
He added that the only politician who seemed to be obsessed with talking about a border poll during the the election campaign was Mr Donaldson.
The debate finished with a discussion about the crisis in Northern Ireland’s health service, which has some of the longest waiting lists in Western Europe.
And whether or not DUP opposition to protocol would prevent a Stormont Executive being formed to tackle the issue.
