The Taoiseach has signalled that the Government is devising a new strategy to bring about the restoration of the Northern Ireland institutions before he meets President Clinton this week.
The Irish strategy departs from the quid pro quo on "guns for government" which led to the suspension of the Executive last month. It is understood to concentrate instead on seeking an IRA declaration that "war" is not an option. The proposal will be put to the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, next weekend when Mr Ahern returns to Dublin.
The Taoiseach's comments in Sydney are part of an attempt by the Government to broaden the agenda beyond decommissioning and devolution. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, said yesterday that the Mitchell review of the Belfast Agreement "did not work" as it operated within a narrow context of decommissioning and devolution.
Stressing that "everyone needs to have the same idea about what that [decommissioning] means so we can proceed", Mr Cowen also emphasised the importance of reducing the security forces' presence across the North.
The Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, in a statement issued yesterday through the Northern Ireland Office, said British army levels in Northern Ireland were "those required for the protection of civilians against terrorism. Security cannot be reduced unless the threat falls away".
He added "I said this in Dublin last week, and the need for proper security is well under stood."
The first formal indication of the Government's new strategy emerged in a carefully-nuanced speech by the Taoiseach in Sydney last night. In an Australian Ireland Fund lecture at the University of New South Wales, Mr Ahern invoked Eamon de Valera's Civil War speech of July 1923 that "the war so far as we are concerned is finished".
The Taoiseach said: "It would make an immense contribution to confidence-building if the public could feel assured that every organisation that was involved in the Northern Ireland conflict accepts that a return to armed campaign is not an option."
All parties had an absolute obligation to ensure that all aspects of the Belfast Agreement were implemented in full, Mr Ahern said, including a reduction in British soldiers, especially in areas such as south Armagh, where they were still a source of harassment.
He said all sides accepted that dealing with the arms issue to everyone's satisfaction was essential. There was the ever-present danger that dissident or criminal elements could get hold of weapons.
"It is argued that there is no precedent for decommissioning," he said. "That is true, in a narrow sense, but history also shows that arms can be put permanently beyond use in a manner that can ensure maximum public confidence, and in fact parties that grew out of armed rebellion became strong champions of democracy and an Irish constitutional order."
In Sydney the Taoiseach said: "Paramilitary organisations on both sides must be willing to decide how to secure their weapons and put them beyond use. That is their patriotic duty."
Government sources, meanwhile, think there will be no movement to break the stalemate on suspension until after the Ulster Unionist Council meeting on March 25th. The Taoiseach and Mr Blair will meet in Lisbon over that weekend at the EU summit to review the situation.
