The Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Mary Harney yesterday cautioned against setting deadlines on IRA decommissioning but expressed hope that it would happen soon as it was a vital step towards the republican movement embracing democracy.
Ms Harney - who is acting Minister for Justice this week while Michael McDowell is on his holidays - said that the decommissioning of IRA arms will remove the largest single obstacle to a proper flourishing of democracy on the island.
"I want to welcome the announcement made last week and we all hope that at long last it provides the mechanism through which the peace process can be bedded down - it was the remaining obstacle in the way of democracy flourishing.
"I'm actually acting Minister for Justice this week - the Minister is away on his holidays and I think it would be unhelpful of me to talk about timelines or deadlines - I don't think that would be helpful at the moment.
"I think the principle is what's important - we want to see an end to all aspects of criminality, we want to see people embracing democracy and democratic politics and engaging in debate on the same basis as everybody else so there's no room for people having armies or arms."
Ms Harney said she was fully confident that Gen John de Chastelain would oversee the decommissioning of IRA arms in a credible manner which would reassure all parties that the Belfast Agreement was being fully delivered on.
"Everybody has confidence in Gen de Chastelain's credibility to do the job and the sooner the better - most people have been waiting a long time.
"We had anticipated when the Good Friday agreement was signed in 1998 that decommissioning would come an awful lot sooner.
"But holding on to arms is not compatible with democratic politics . Sinn Féin has to be involved in the political process on the same basis as everybody else. There's no room for criminality, it's not compatible with democratic politics."
Asked about Opposition claims of Fianna Fáil cronyism in the appointment of the Taoiseach's former partner, Celia Larkin, to the board of the National Consumer Agency, Ms Harney strongly rejected suggestions that the PDs were in Government to act as a watchdog on their coalition partner.
"I don't regard myself as a moral watchdog of anybody - I sit around a Cabinet table with honest women and men."
She added that she believed that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was fully entitled to appoint Ms Larkin to the National Consumer Agency.