There is disquiet among Fianna Fáil TDs over the Government's decision to support EU guidelines, writes Arthur Beesley, Political Reporter
The proposal to adopt EU guidelines for embryonic stem-cell research takes place against the backdrop of a recent but emotive political debate about the ethical standing of such work.
The Government's decision to support the guidelines has proved highly controversial, not least on the Fianna Fáil backbenches.
But for all the Government's trouble, the proposal is now believed likely to be rejected when EU ministers responsible for scientific research are asked in Brussels today to endorse the regulatory framework.
The ministers from Germany, Italy, Austria and Portugal are expected to oppose the regulations.
Their voting strength in the EU system will be enough to block the regulations.
Ironic as this may be, it will not change the position of the Tánaiste. Ms Harney's spokesman said last night that the European Commission had informed the Government that stem-cell research could proceed unregulated if the regulations were rejected.
Thus Ms Harney insists that the Government should support the regulations.
The alternative, she has said, is to allow a "free-for-all", with no controls whatever over embryonic and adult stem-cell research in Europe.
Ms Harney has said that support does not mean such research will be carried out in Ireland.
This position is linked to the constitutional provision protecting the life of the unborn. However, doubts emerged last night as to whether Irish law prohibited such research.
However, it is understood that the Attorney General, Mr Rory Brady SC, has advised the Government that support for the regulations has no constitutional implications.
Still, the Government's stance has inflamed opinion within the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, where many senior TDs and Senators have serious reservations about research using human embryos.
Mr Barry Andrews TD, who supports the Government position, said last night that he was in a minority in the party. He quipped that he could be accused of sowing dissent within Fianna Fáil by supporting the Government's position.
Meanwhile, the Catholic hierarchy secured a meeting with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to outline its opposition to the proposal. Cardinal Desmond Connell has also made a number of public appeals to the Government.
More extreme reservations have been voiced by the anti-abortion group Youth Defence, which claimed yesterday that the regulations would funnel public money into "Nazi-style experiments on human beings".
The reality is otherwise. As Ms Harney has been at pains to point out, the regulations under immediate discussion do not embrace funding per se.
Instead, they outline a set of detailed clinical regulations which would govern the use of an EU funding stream already allocated to stem-cell research.
The Government was party to the unanimous EU decision in December 2001 that allocated €16 billion for an outline programme of research projects in 2002-2006. This included a €2.2 billion allocation to life-science research.
Some €1.1 billion from that allocation was earmarked for stem-cell research on embryonic and adult stem cells.
The Irish vote for that plan, the 6th Framework Programme, fell to the Minister of State, Mr Noel Treacy, who then had responsibility for science and technology.
With Ms Harney's job embracing responsibility for research since the general election last year, the EU Council of Ministers agreed in June last year to ask the European Commission for detailed regulations to govern stem-cell research.
Pending the production of the regulations, the subject of today's vote, the ministers imposed a moratorium on stem-cell research until the end of 2003.