Sinn Féin has denounced the "partitionist parties" in Leinster House for rejecting proposals to have MPs from the North speak regularly in a "committee of the whole Dáil".
The party's Dáil leader, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, said Fine Gael and Labour's rejection of the Taoiseach's proposal to provide for participation of Northern Ireland MPs in Dáil proceedings "exposes these deeply partitionist parties for what they are. They want to keep the Oireachtas as a cold house for Northern nationalists".
He said he would now seek clarification from the Taoiseach about the status of the proposal, including the attitude of his Coalition partners the PDs.
He urged Mr Ahern to go ahead with his plan, announced in a letter to Dáil party leaders this week, to have MPs from the North speak at a "Committee of the whole Dáil" at least every six months. This would almost certainly involve their speaking in proceedings in the Dáil chamber in which all 166 TDs could participate.
Fine Gael, Labour and the PDs have objected, because they see the scheme as giving Sinn Féin the opportunity to have their leaders such as Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness become the "star turn" at regular Dáil proceedings.
While Sinn Féin and the SDLP would take up invitations to attend such Dáil proceedings, the main unionist parties have said they would not.
Without the approval of the main parties, the Taoiseach will almost certainly not proceed with the plan. The PDs' view is believed to have been made known to Sinn Féin last week, while the Fine Gael and Labour rejections are unlikely to have come as a surprise to that party.
The Minister for Justice Michael McDowell confirmed his party's opposition to the Taoiseach's proposal yesterday. He said the Belfast Agreement envisaged a forum in which equal numbers of parliamentarians from the Oireachtas and Northern Assembly would participate.
"The Progressive Democrats reject the idea that a parallel North/South Board should be established within the Oireachtas which would sweep away the basis for what was envisaged in the Agreement, and which would tend to reward Sinn Féin abstentionism," he told reporters in Dublin.
He said it was unacceptable that Sinn Féin MPs would not go to Westminster, but instead "would come south and participate in sessions of the whole Dáil in the Dáil chamber. That's simply not acceptable to us under any circumstance."
However Mr Ó Caoláin said yesterday he has written to the Taoiseach asking what the status of these proposals was now, and whether the PDs had vetoed them. "Before the ink was dry on the Taoiseach's letter to them Fine Gael and the Labour Party have rejected the proposal to provide for participation of Six-County MPs in a Committee of the whole Dáil", he said. "These deeply partitionist parties have been exposed for what they are."