Ahern's call to IRA on new plan

The Taoiseach has called on the IRA to publicly declare its support for the Northern Ireland initiative.

Mr Ahern said that during all the years of violence it was said that Sinn Fein and the IRA were one. "All of a sudden, when we come to this final position, it is `Sinn Fein, but they do not speak for the IRA'.

"I have said for many years that the two organisations are the opposite sides of the one coin. So it would be very helpful in the convincing and selling process of this to answer that question, which is Ken Maginnis's question in particular, and he is a respected person within the Unionist community and outside of it, and for the IRA to say that they can go with this."

Asked if he expected this to happen, he said: "I certainly hope that it will happen." Asked if he had been given any indication that it would, he said: "No, because what has to happen is that Sinn Fein now must go to the extended republican family and explain what they are at and try to sell what they want to do."

In an interview on the RTE radio programme, This Week, it was put to Mr Ahern that the Sinn Fein pledge to continue to encourage and use its influence to achieve the decommissioning of arms was, from a unionist point of view, a nice aim but no guarantee.

Mr Ahern replied: "Let us look at their track record. They said a few years back that they would try to move the republican movement away from violence. There was a breakdown in that over this very issue for a period. But now we are just beginning the third year of an IRA ceasefire. There have been some incidents, but just a fraction of what we have had over the years. So I think there is a certain amount of goodwill and trust over that.

"We heard the Sinn Fein leadership say they would go out and work to get a two-thirds majority to sit in a Northern assembly, something that was totally anathema to them. They went out and got a 90 per cent vote.

"We have heard them say they will move more extensively into the democratic process, and we have all seen how they have done that, both North and South. We have seen the leadership engage with the difficulties of breakaway groups, trying to convince the communities they were coming from that it was the wrong road to go. That has not been easy. They are trying to pull parts of communities who had totally set their way to achieve their aims by military and violent means."

He said he believed Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness had influence over the IRA. "Mr Adams has to sell the message. I believe he will be successful. If he is not successful, we are going nowhere."

Asked if it was a case that Mr Adams and Sinn Fein had jumped while Mr Trimble and the UUP had not, he said he hoped that all sides would take a significant step forward. Both men had a "selling job" to do.

"Gerry Adams has to convince people from the IRA, and from the extended Sinn Fein family, that they can move forward in this step into democracy. They have made many steps over the past 12 months . . . On the other side, David Trimble has made enormous moves, he was brave on Good Friday, he led the pro-Agreement party, although there were great difficulties in the Unionist family. Both of them as leaders want to move forward."