Mr Martin McGuinness has said if Sinn Féin held the balance of power in the Republic, the party would decide "in a democratic fashion" whether to go into coalition. The membership rather than the leadership would determine the issue, writes Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor.
The Sinn Féin chief negotiator made his comments yesterday after the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern, opened up the possibility of Fianna Fáil entering into a future coalition government with Sinn Féin.
Mr McGuinness responded that the Minister's comments were a "very clear acknowledgment of the ever-increasing growth of support for Sinn Féin".
He added: "We believe at some stage in the future Sinn Féin will form a government on the island of Ireland. We are working for that day. I think the remarks by Dermot Ahern are an acknowledgment of that reality and of the tremendous growth of Sinn Féin's vote from Kerry to Belfast to Cork to Derry.
"If at some stage in the future, as a result of a general election in the South, that we have the required numbers we have made it clear what we intend to do. It will be discussed by our party membership. We will decide in a democratic fashion."
He said however that, rather than focusing on possible future coalitions in the South, the Sinn Féin concentration was on trying to break the political deadlock in the North, so that all the institutions of the Belfast Agreement could be fully restored.
It was four weeks since the beginning of the Leeds Castle talks where it emerged that the IRA was prepared to make, as Mr McGuinness repeated yesterday, "a historic and unprecedented" offer to boost the peace process. Republicans had not demurred from this being interpreted as full IRA disarmament and ending of activity.
The chances of a deal remain bogged down over technical elements of the working of the agreement, such as ministerial accountability, policing, and whether the North's First and Deputy First Minister would be elected together.
Mr McGuinness has set Halloween as the deadline for a deal. If that deadline passed, it would then be for the Irish and British governments to decide whether to put "take or leave" proposals to the Northern parties.
Such a move carries obvious risks. Were either of the main parties, the DUP and Sinn Féin, to outrightly reject such proposals the governments could be faced with the choice of calling an Assembly election - effectively to try to test whether the public endorsed their proposals - or of maintaining direct rule for the foreseeable future.
The Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, who met Mr Ahern in Hillsborough Castle on Tuesday, said the two governments were still trying to devise a paper that would be acceptable both to the pro-Belfast Agreement parties and the DUP.
He said it would be in no one's interest to publish divisive proposals, but nonetheless he did not rule out publishing the governments' "best read" of the way forward. "We, as the two governments, will do our best to try to come up with something that everybody could at least acquiesce and accept," said Mr Murphy.
Meanwhile, Mr McGuinness and DUP Assembly member Ms Diane Dodds found themselves unusually on the same side of the political argument yesterday, when they separately called for changes to the electoral registration law.
SF's day with FF has not come yet: