The Progressive Democrats have determined there is now a second major issue blocking a deal in the North, insisting they will not sign up to an agreement without an IRA commitment not to engage in criminal activity.
In a dramatic development last night, the PD parliamentary party contradicted both the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister, who have said the only issue now presenting a difficulty was the dispute over whether photographs of IRA decommissioning should be taken and published.
Instead, it said the "key issue" was in fact the IRA's failure so far to sign up to a commitment not to engage in criminal activity. An IRA statement yesterday outlining what the organisation had agreed to excluded any reference to such a commitment.
The Irish and British governments have proposed that they make such a commitment.
In relation to the possible release from prison of the killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe the PD source said last night: "The deal is off. The whole issue of McCabe is formally off the table."
Asked if it was the case that the Progressive Democrats Ministers in Government would not sign up to a deal unless this issue was resolved the source said: "That would be the PD position". It was not just that they would not agree to the release of the McCabe killers: They would not agree to the deal at all, the source maintained.
As Government officials prepare to begin contacts with the DUP and Sinn Féin again over the weekend, the source said a proposed IRA declaration not to endanger anyone's personal safety "is the key to the agreement".
But the IRA had so far refused to sign up to this.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Taoiseach will be involved in a series of meetings next week to try to resolve the difficulties, which they say are solely over the issue of photographs. But the PD source said last night that "failure was not a question of photographs - the issue was much wider and much deeper than that". This source said that the party's TDs and senators agreed at a meeting last night that "the key was the failure of the IRA to sign up to the declaration to end paramilitary activity - anything from kneecapping to exiling", in line with paragraph 13 of the Hillsborough joint declaration of March 2003. A phrase to deal with this issue was inserted into the proposed IRA statement which was among the documents published by the two governments in Belfast on Wednesday. This said the IRA "recognised the need to uphold and not to endanger anyone's personal rights and safety".
But while this phrase was in the IRA statement as proposed by the governments, it was excluded from the IRA's own account of what it had signed up to, issued yesterday. The PD source said yesterday that the IRA had so far refused to commit itself to this phrase, and if this remained the position, the PDs would not accept any deal.
However, earlier a DUP source who was conscious of the differences in wording between the two statements, appeared unperturbed by those differences.
When alerted last night to the PD position the DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said his party's main focus was on achieving "transparency" over decommissioning.
He said he hadn't yet carried out a textual check of the differences between the statements. He wasn't in a position therefore to say whether textual differences were of any significance.
Meanwhile, PD Minister of State Mr Tim O'Malley said last night that the killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe should serve their full jail terms. This is despite the Government's position that they could be released if there is a comprehensive deal on the North.