Unconfirmed reports were circulating in Leinster House last night that the IRA had discovered that a quantity of its arsenal in the Republic has gone "missing".
The reports suggested that it had been removed without authorisation by IRA activists in the Republic.
It is understood that the information has been conveyed by republican sources to politicians who are interpreting it as a difference in strategy within the republican movement - with a more hardline approach being taken by IRA members south of the Border.