Does the Alliance Party have any point to it?

Alliance Party of Northern Ireland assembly member and former deputy leader Eileen Bell has been named as the new speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly by the Northern Ireland Office. Whether or not the appointment will be upheld when/if the assembly starts sitting again in the next attempt to form an executive remains to be seen. But Alliance leader David Ford was not informed about this!

Alliance leader David Ford said it would have been "appropriate and good manners" for him to have been informed in advance of the decision.

So either the Alliance is in such a mess that its assembly members are not talking to one another or the Northern Ireland Office has realised that the party is of such insignificance there is no need to pander to it anymore. Which is it?