TODAY'S MEETING of the deadlocked Northern Executive and a planned meeting of Ministers from Stormont and the Government tomorrow are highly unlikely to go ahead, despite efforts to break the impasse affecting the DUP and Sinn Féin.
The British and Irish governments were encouraged by some positive language from First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness who appeared before an Assembly scrutiny committee yesterday.
One source told The Irish Timesthe issues dividing them remained primarily for their two parties to resolve and that there was little immediate prospect of Ministers from the two governments arriving at Stormont to intervene.
Mr Robinson yesterday offered to hold an Executive meeting with an open agenda at which any Minister could raise any issue.
He claimed this would remove the "fig leaf" claim by Sinn Féin that the DUP was working to stymie discussion of contentious issues, primarily the devolution of policing and justice.
"The only reasons that they have publicly given for the Executive not meeting are that the agenda is in some way being constrained," he said.
"I am removing that fig leaf. I am saying we can have an open agenda, we can deal with whatever issues, including policing and justice, which can be raised at the Executive table if they wish."
However, Sinn Féin junior Minister Gerry Kelly said it was important for the Executive to have an agreed agenda, not just an open one.
"An agreed agenda means you have an agenda agreed, which means you have agreed papers between the First and Deputy First Minister. That is as a result of a series of negotiations which are usually carried out before any Executive meeting," he said.
"To throw up the smokescreen that you can willy-nilly come in here and throw a lot of papers on to the table and we would all have a jolly good talking shop is not the way it works.
"The Executive is not a talking shop - it is to deal with issues that are important to all the people and that's what the DUP are not doing."