The £60 million grant promised by the Taoiseach to the Gaelic Athletic Association for Croke Park is still up "for negotiation", the Progressive Democrats declared last night.
Relations between Fianna Fail and the PDs have been affected as evidence mounts that the junior coalition partner was sidelined during the talks with the GAA on the deal.
An explanatory note on the issue will be brought before today's Cabinet meeting by the Minister for Sport and Tourism, Dr McDaid, though ministers will not be asked to make a final decision.
However, sources on the Fianna Fail side of the Government insisted there was "a done deal" with the GAA that could not now be changed.
Last Tuesday, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy and Dr McDaid held the third of a series of meetings with senior GAA figures. On the following day the Taoiseach wrote to the GAA confirming that the Government would pay £60 million towards finishing off the Croke Park development in return for the GAA's agreement to use Stadium Ireland in Abbotstown.
The money would be paid in four payments of £15 million, including one to prepare Croke Park for the Special Olympics. In addition, the GAA would get £10 million a year for seven years from 2003 to fund sport development.
The GAA had expected the Government would announce the deal in time for RTE's Nine O'Clock News last Friday, but for some, as yet unknown, reason, this did not happen.
The association's Director General, Mr Liam Mulvihill, asked a number of journalists attending the opening session of the GAA Congress in the Burlington Hotel if they had seen "the Government's statement".
The Tanaiste did not appear to have been briefed by the Minister for Finance until a telephone conversation on Friday night when the GAA president, Mr Sean McCague, publicly announced the package.
Ms Harney was not at her office last week because of the death of her father.
Yesterday, speaking in Donegal, she said no final decision had been made and conditions would have to be attached before she would approve it.
"I don't think it makes sense that such a large sum of money would be given to an organisation on the basis that they would prevent others from using the facilities," she declared.
Rugby and soccer also had significant followings throughout the country, she said. She would like those codes to be able to use Croke Park. "If taxpayers' money is to be given, it has to be on that basis."
Emphasising that the Tanaiste did not object to helping the GAA, her spokesman said the matter was not yet finalised. "She is not viewing this as something that is done and dusted," he said.
Clearly taken aback by the crisis, the Taoiseach attempted to calm the situation last night. However, he did not go so far as to say that last-minute conditions would be attached to the GAA offer. "Of course in our discussions, when we tie down the legal agreement with the GAA it is obligatory for us to make our views clear to them and we will certainly do that," he said, speaking in Templemore, Co Tipperary.