Unionists have stayed away from a North-South ministerial meeting today, a further sign of the tensions hitting the Stormont government.
Yesterday Sinn Féin blocked a Northern Ireland cabinet meeting in protest at the failure of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to agree a date for the devolution of policing and justice powers.
DUP leader Peter Robinson said the tactic made it impossible to approve today's cross-border event and so the DUP minister scheduled to attend did not turn up.
The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 included an all-Ireland political dimension on the demand of nationalists, but now that architecture has begun to fall victim to the growing crisis.
Today's North-South agriculture meeting in Co Cavan was to involve two ministers from both sides of the border, but DUP Environment Minister Sammy Wilson did not attend.
Stormont Agriculture Minister, Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew, went ahead with the meeting, even though it was not held under the auspices of the North-South Ministerial Council.
She held discussions with Brendan Smith, Minister for Agriculture, and Éamon Ó Cuív, the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
A demand this week by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for politicians to agree a date for the devolution of policing powers was rejected by the DUP.
The 2006 St Andrew's deal set May this year as a target date for the transfer of the powers, but the DUP has said the time is not yet right.
