THE prospect of the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, meeting Sinn Fein before becoming Taoiseach next week has almost vanished.
According to senior Fianna Fail sources, it is now "next to impossible for Sinn Fein to convince people of their good faith" after the IRA killing of two RUC officers in Lurgan on Monday.
As soon as he becomes Taoiseach, as expected, on June 26th, Mr Ahern will adopt the same policy as the outgoing Government in terms of continuing the ban on ministerial meetings with Sinn Fein. No firm decision has been made by Mr Ahern on whether to allow Government officials meet Sinn Fein but it is understood he will only sanction talks on the basis that they deal with an IRA ceasefire.
Following discussions with the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, in Dublin yesterday, Mr Ahern indicated again he was not willing to close the door completely on a meeting with Sinn Fein prior to becoming Taoiseach. However, unless there are strong prior signals that a ceasefire was indeed feasible, he will not meet the party.
The Fianna Fail leadership is understood to take the view that the total political isolation of Sinn Fein could lead to increased IRA activity and a further slide into crisis. A party source said: "People will view the killings as an act of total cynicism that the IRA waited until after the elections before doing something like this. "It is so difficult to go through a series of discussions with Sinn Fein while this is going on. The rug is being pulled from under the argument that these talks should continue."
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, led his party delegation last Saturday in the third meeting with Irish government officials since the Labour Party took office in Britain. The meeting was authorised on the basis that a ceasefire was on the cards according to sources.
The talks were positive in tone and it is believed there was discussion in considerable detail on new conditions devised by the British government in consultation with Dublin - for Sinn Fein's entry to the Stormont talks. The decommissioning of paramilitary weapons was also dealt with in that context.
In spite of the fact that the ceasefire ended in February 1996, the killings in the Co Armagh town came as a "bolt from the blue", senior sources said.
Government sources said there was no point in dealing with Sinn Fein while the republican movement was engaged in an electoral strategy and a campaign of violence.
The Government takes the view that the Lurgan attack was planned well in advance and, because of the IRA's rapid admission of responsibility, those who carried it out could not have misunderstood the implications of their actions.
"Nobody in Northern Ireland would not comprehend the consequences of these killings. What we are dealing with now is the motive for these actions. We are looking at a strand in the IRA that is heedless of consequences," one source said.
Republican sources last night denied suggestions that the British government had recently sent the party a paper outlining a formula to break the logjam over the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons.
The two governments are agreed decommissioning should he placed before a special committee in the talks process so that the substantive discussions could move on, unrestricted.
According to other republican sources, the Sinn Fein leadership "will work tirelessly to reverse the slide" in the wake of the Lurgan murders. They agreed, however, that the situation facing Mr Adams was now "very difficult".