The Government mounted a damage-limitation exercise last night after remarks by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, appeared to raise a question-mark over its dialogue with the Ulster Unionist Party. The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, with key members of his negotiating team and leading loyalist politicians, reacted furiously to Mr Andrews's suggestion that Dublin was seeking cross-Border bodies with powers "not unlike a government".
Mr David Ervine, of the Progressive Unionist Party, said he had been contacted by the UVF to express their anger at Mr Andrews's remarks, made during a BBC radio interview. And Mr Reg Empey, a leading member of Mr Trimble's talks team, told The Irish Times that the party's dialogue with the Taoiseach, started at a successful meeting between Mr Ahern and Mr Trimble in London 11 days ago, was "holed below the waterline right now".
Despite the dispute, Government sources are confident that next Monday's meeting between the UUP and the Taoiseach will go ahead during Mr Ahern's planned visit to the Stormont multi-party talks. However, there was clearly surprise and embarrassment in some Irish circles at Mr Andrews's use of what one source termed "old language".
Senior Government officials contacted leading unionists yesterday to reassure them that the Government was not seeking what Mr Trimble has described as "an embryonic all-Ireland government". And they stressed that the Minister's comments should be seen in the context of his and the Government's commitment to the need for unionist agreement and consent, and for "transparency" in any cross-Border bodies emerging as part of a political settlement.
In the interview, recorded on Friday for Saturday, Mr Andrews repeated the central point of last week's speech to EU ambassadors, saying: "We want nothing less than a new beginning in all the relationships within the island, between the islands . . . and it must be rooted in agreement between the two great traditions on the island."
The Minister did not accept that cross-Border bodies with executive powers represented "a bridge too far for anybody", although they had to be "fleshed out". He continued: "As a principle I think they are practical, and there have been suggestions that they might be based on the EU model of the Council of Ministers, for example, as a beginning."
Asked for his understanding of a cross-Border body with executive powers, Mr Andrews replied: "Well, a cross-Border body with executive powers would mean representatives from the devolved government in the North participating with Ministers from Oireachtas Eireann, from the parliament in the South, and they would reach joint decisions which would be implemented by a secretariat who would have strong functions, executive functions and directional functions, and not unlike a government."
Mr Empey said "directional" and "government" were "the magic words" as far as unionists were concerned, and accused the Minister of "pressing the nuclear button".
But as they braced themselves for the fallout, officials drew encouragement from Mr Trimble's reaction, which conspicuously did not close the door to further talks with Dublin and emphasised his continuing engagement with the issues under negotiation.
Mr Trimble told GMTV that Mr Andrews was "wrong" and "contradicting his own prime minister". Asked if the Minister was simply stating "the inevitable" Mr Trimble replied: "No. He is not. Quite the opposite and I wonder what on earth he is playing at because he knows, and he was present at my meeting with the Irish prime minister, in which we made it absolutely clear that there was no question of any arrangement for co-operation North and South resembling an embryonic all-Ireland government.
"The Taoiseach assured us that that was not his intention. So if Mr Andrews is saying that they are planning an embryonic all-Ireland government, then he is not only going against my view, he is also contradicting his own prime minister."
Mr Trimble continued: "I'm sorry for Mr Andrews. He has only recently been appointed Foreign Minister . . . He doesn't appear to be fully at home with the realities that exist. We will probably see him tomorrow and I shall give him a piece of my mind."
For all his bullishness, Mr Trimble will have in mind the impact of Mr Andrews's comments - and the perception of them - among those members of the UUP increasingly sceptical about the direction of the talks process and the UUP's participation in it.
He was also reacting to one half of a "double-whammy" to hit the UUP at the weekend, the other being the confirmation that Mr Tony Blair will meet a Sinn Fein delegation led by Mr Gerry Adams at 10 Downing Street on Thursday week.