The North's culture minister Edwin Poots has cast doubt on whether a proposed Irish Language Act will be brought before the Northern Assembly as envisaged in last November's St Andrews Agreement.
Speaking after a meeting today with a Sinn Féin delegation headed by Gerry Adams, the DUP minister said he and his officials would have to study responses to a consultation on the Act and would have to conduct a cost benefit analysis before a decision could be reached.
Draft plans issued by the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure in March envisage the appointment of an Irish language commissioner and the establishment of Irish language schemes for public bodies.
Mr Poots said he intended to discuss the matter with his Assembly scrutiny committee but insisted that if the committee could not achieve consensus then he could not take forward any proposals to his cabinet colleagues.
"I cannot say what I am doing at this stage because first of all we are going through an analysis of the consultation," Mr Poots said.
"Secondly, we are doing a cost and benefits analysis of our own which will identify the cost to the public purse and will identify any benefits from introducing an Irish Language Act.
"It's certainly a possibility (that legislation will not be submitted). "We have to look at it in the broader scale, look at how we meet our departmental regulations and look at how we meet the conditions set by the European Council. All of that has to be put in the mix and all of that has to be considered."
A language act is a key demand from Irish language advocates who feel it deserves the protection granted to other minority languages across Europe.
However, DUP insisted as recently as May that it will veto any such Act for the Irish Language. Speaking after today's meeting, Gerry Adams insisted there would be an Irish Language Act which the British Government originally committed itself to in last November's St Andrews Agreement.
Mr Poots, however, insisted he was not bound by that agreement. "I am not bound by an agreement between Sinn Fein and Tony Blair," he said.
"What I am bound by is the Northern Ireland Assembly and ultimately any decisions I take have to be taken through the Northern Ireland Assembly.
"We have conditions to ensure that issues which are controversial - and I take it this is deemed to be controversial - that they require cross-community support.
"So ultimately it is a challenge for those people who are lobbying for an Irish Language Act to ensure that they can achieve cross-community support."
Mr Adams, who was also flanked by Sinn Fein MEP Bairbre de Brun and Assembly member Francie Brolly, described his party's engagement with the minister as a good one.
However he said the current clauses for a possible Irish Language Act were not acceptable.
The Sinn Fein leader also insisted that the Irish language was part of a common heritage. "The language itself isn't a republican language," he said.
"It isn't a Sinn Fein language. It is actually the heritage and the property of everybody who lives on this island.
Additional reporting PA