The Government is expected to decide today how to handle Friday's threatened meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council after the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, briefs this morning's Cabinet meeting on the situation.
Sources indicated yesterday that it was still possible that the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, would travel to Enniskillen to meet his Northern counterpart, Sinn Fein's Ms Bairbre de Brun, for talks on food safety. The Taoiseach is said to be determined that "some meeting" will take place despite Mr David Trimble's withholding of his authorisation of a formal meeting of the council.
With Mr Trimble refusing to sanction Sinn Fein Ministers to attend such meetings until the IRA re-engages with the de Chastelain commission, the Government and the North's nationalist parties are seeking ways to minimise the impact this will have on the operation of the Belfast Agreement.
The Government is considered likely to send officials to Enniskillen, although the idea of the Minister travelling has not been ruled out. A series of high level political meetings in Dublin yesterday reached no final decision.
A new North-South body - the Food Safety Promotion Board - is due to be launched on Friday by Mr Martin and Ms de Brun, separate from the threatened NSMC meeting. In addition, a North-South health promotion campaign is due to be launched.
This is to encourage women who are attempting to become pregnant to take folic acid as a protection against a child being born with spina bifida.
There is, therefore, scope for the Ministers to perform functions outside the auspices of an official NSMC meeting, and possibly to hold an informal bilateral meeting. Such a meeting would be designed to emphasise that the work of the North-South institutions continues despite the unionist sanction.
However, no final Government decision has been made and the Cabinet will this morning be told of the various complex legal issues involved. Government sources emphasise that the problem is being treated primarily as a political one rather than a legal one.
A further complication is a clause in the motion passed by the Ulster Unionist Council last Saturday threatening further disruption of the operation of the Belfast Agreement should the two governments take any action designed to thwart the blocking of Sinn Fein attendance at NSMC meetings. While the Government's approach to Friday's meeting is not yet clear, the unionist response to an approach designed to minimise the effect of its sanction is not known either.