EIGHT of the 12 delegations to the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation have agreed that meetings of the forum should be further deferred until March 29th, when the position will again be reviewed.
No forum meetings have been held since the IRA ended its ceasefire on February 9th.
The four exceptions were Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein, the Green Party and the group of independent TDs.
Fianna Fail wrote last week to the forum chairwoman, Judge Catherine McGuinness, proposing an extraordinary session, to include Sinn Fein, on March 22nd to consider whether the forum had a role to play in reestablishing peace.
However, the majority of delegations - representing 25 out of its 39 members do not believe a reconvening of the forum, even for one session, would serve any useful purpose in the absence of a restoration of the IRA ceasefire.
Concern has also been expressed about whether Sinn Fein is in contravention of the forum's terms of reference - that all problems should be resolved without resort to violence - because of the ending of the IRA ceasefire.
Judge McGuinness said yesterday she and the forum secretariat would continue to be available to all delegations "to assist contacts, such as have taken place in recent weeks, directed at promoting lasting peace and reconciliation on this island".
However, unless there is a restoration of the IRA ceasefire, it is clear that the closure of the forum, already in its final months of work, cannot be postponed for long.
Work on its outstanding reports - on obstacles to reconciliation in the Republic, individual human rights, the island economy and the protection of minority rights in comparable situations abroad - has been frozen since February 9th.
It seems certain that if there is no restoration of the IRA ceasefire, the forum will not meet again either in plenary or committee session in the foreseeable future. However, it is considered unlikely that the body will be formally wound up before the opening of inter party negotiations on Northern Ireland on June 10th.
If those go ahead as planned, its useful role will be finished. However, there is speculation that in the event of the body due to be elected in Northern Ireland turning out to be something more than just a panel of negotiators, the forum could conceivably be kept in existence as a parallel Southern body.