The Taoiseach has rejected persistent reports that the Government agreed to drop prosecutions and reduce surveillance of "Real IRA" members in exchange for a ceasefire in the wake of the 1998 Omagh bombing.
In a statement yesterday, Mr Ahern said this allegation, reported by some British and Irish media outlets, was "as outrageous as it is deeply offensive".
The Taoiseach said that his special adviser then, Dr Martin Mansergh, had advised Belfast priest Father Alex Reid in relation to discussions he was having with "Real IRA" associates immediately after Omagh. It was associates of the "Real IRA" who instigated these contacts, not the Government or Dr Mansergh.
He said Father Reid "took the opportunity to impress on them the need to stop, not least from their own point of viewIn the aftermath of Omagh, the key message from here could not have been clearer. It was that the activity of the "Real IRA" must stop and that the atrocity which Omagh and its people suffered must never happen again." Father Reid had been instrumental in helping to bring about the two IRA ceasefires.
"I am entirely satisfied that Father Reid in all his contact emphasised that, regardless of a ceasefire, the Omagh bombers would be pursued, and that the law would also take its course in relation to all other crimes committed before a ceasefire."
He said the only person ever convicted in connection with Omagh was convicted in the Republic. "It is also a fact that no fewer than 41 "Real IRA" prisoners are incarcerated in Portlaoise, of whom 34 are convicted of various crimes. This can hardly be said to amount to evidence of a go-soft deal with the 'Real IRA'. The fact is that we have not just talked tough since Omagh. We have been tough."
He said the "Real IRA" ceasefire after Omagh "had nothing to do with anything on offer from the Government to the 'Real IRA'. Because there was nothing on offer, either then, or before that time, or at any time since."
He said the most likely reason for the "Real IRA" ceasefire, subsequently dishonoured, "was that they found themselves facing the weight of public odium and Government determination and they simply had no place else to go".
He said there was no substance to the suggestion that the Garda had been told to "go easy" on "Real IRA" surveillance. "It could, or course, be expected - and would not be unreasonable to speculate - that if a permanent ceasefire were declared and maintained, the necessity for intensive surveillance would probably reduce also as a natural outcome of the reduced threat."
However there had been no question of instructing gardaí "to do other than conduct police operations as they judged right and appropriate in the circumstances facing them".
He said there had been, and still is, contact between Government representatives and representatives of the "Real IRA" prisoners in Portlaoise prison and with members of the 32 County Sovereignty Committee representing prisoners interests. The Department of Justice always maintained contact with paramilitary prisoner representatives concerning prison conditions. He was pointing this out now "in case somebody later seeks to portray it as a new 'revelation'."
He said he regretted that the relatives of the Omagh victims "should be exposed to unfounded speculation and allegations in that regard. They have suffered enough and they are entitled to the assurance that nothing done in this jurisdiction in the aftermath of the atrocity was intended to do other than to bring to justice those responsible for the bombing and to stop a similar outrage occurring."