The outcome of the Tory leadership contest which will decide the UK's next Prime Minister will be regarded by some sceptics as a Hobson's choice for Northern Ireland.
While Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have been hotly debating their wider spending and taxation plans, many will see little discernable difference in how they regard matters on these shores.
Both say they want to "fix" issues with Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol, albeit with nuanced differences in approach, and both want to see Stormont power-sharing restored.
Read more: Brendan Hughes: Stormont funding pressures piling up in absence of Executive
Under either contender's leadership, the controversial Protocol Bill to override parts of the Irish Sea trade deal would continue its passage through Parliament and divisive Troubles legacy legislation would still be enacted.
Few are expecting Downing Street's new tenant to suddenly have a more hands-on involvement in addressing the many challenges specific to Northern Ireland - unless of course it impacts on their overall electoral prospects.
Of perhaps greater importance for the region than who occupies Number 10 is who they will choose as their Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
It has been a case of musical chairs for the cabinet position of late, with five Tory MPs in the hot seat in the past four years.
Amid such a high turnaround at Hillsborough Castle, they have had debatable levels of success.
Former Northern Ireland secretary Karen Bradley was ridiculed after admitting when she first took up the job she did not understand that "people who are nationalists don't vote for unionist parties and vice versa".
She later faced calls to resign after telling MPs at Westminster that Troubles killings by security forces were "not crimes", remarks for which she later apologised and said were "inaccurate".
Her successor Julian Smith was praised for securing the restoration of Stormont power-sharing in January 2020, but he was sacked just weeks later under Boris Johnson's premiership.
In the Johnson era, the Northern Ireland Office has been used as a holding pen for party loyalists who can be sent out at a moment's notice to bat for the government on TV and radio.
While this has given former Secretary of State Brandon Lewis and junior minister Conor Burns a higher profile across the UK, it hardly suggests advancing Northern Ireland is a main priority for Downing Street.
It will be intriguing to see if the same approach is taken under the next Prime Minister's leadership or if the roles will return to relative obscurity.
The front-runner for Secretary of State in some people's eyes is Mr Burns, a Belfast-born Brexiteer unionist from a Catholic background.
In the leadership race he has endorsed Ms Truss, who if the bookies are to be believed will be confirmed on Monday as the next Prime Minister.
By contrast the current Secretary of State Shailesh Vara, who has only been in the role since July, has backed Mr Sunak.
Mr Burns has been coy about his ambitions, but engagements with Irish political figures and a round of interviews in recent days are being interpreted as his pitch for the job.
For a role that has long been considered at Westminster a poisoned chalice, it is perhaps refreshing that someone appears to actually want to be appointed as Secretary of State.
Whoever takes up the post faces significant hurdles, from rebuilding relations with the Irish government to addressing unionists' Protocol fears and restoring Stormont.
During the recent Tory leadership hustings in Northern Ireland, a local Tory member asked Ms Truss: "Are you just going to give us another fly-in, fly-out, absentee political landlord?"
The Foreign Secretary said the person she would appoint would be the "absolute best at delivering for the people of Northern Ireland".
After the revolving door of NIO appointments in recent years, the bar of expectations for “absolute best” will to many seem rather low.
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