The Taoiseach Mr Ahern's claim in the Dáil on Wednesday that alleged IRA "punishment" shootings were scaled down during sensitive political negotiations and stepped up again when they ended appears justified by PSNI statistics.
The figures show that before and after the three months of intense negotiations from September to December there were several republican so-called punishment shootings, but that during the talks there was only one such shooting.
In the three-month period from May 31st to August 31st last year republicans were responsible for eight "punishment" shootings, according to PSNI statistics.
In the subsequent three months of the negotiations, which began at Leeds Castle in England in September, there was just one such republican shooting, however. The talks collapsed in early December and, according to the police, since December republicans were responsible for four "punishment" shootings, including those Mr Ahern referred to on Wednesday.
The PSNI statistics do not specify which paramilitary grouping was responsible in each case although based on previous patterns of such attacks it is likely most would have been carried out by the IRA.
During the negotiations there was no diminution in republican "punishment" beatings. Overall last year loyalists carried out almost three times as many such shootings and beatings as republicans.
A PSNI spokeswoman said yesterday that police agreed with Mr Ahern's Dáil comments "in relation to the rise and fall in the level of certain paramilitary assaults" and his reference to specific attacks blamed on the IRA.
"At a recent Policing Board meeting the Chief Constable, Mr Hugh Orde, indicated that the level of paramilitary assaults can drop before elections or key political negotiations," she added.
Mr Alex Attwood, the SDLP Assembly member for West Belfast and a Policing Board member, said there were other sensitive times when republicans "turned off" activity.
"For example, it is well known that when President Clinton visited here in 1995 things quietened down," he said.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, on Tuesday accused the IRA of engaging in what were known as "Matt Talbot" type "punishment" shootings, in which in an apparent new development victims were shot through the palms of the hands.
For instance, on January 12th, a 19-year-old man was taken from Gortnamona Way in West Belfast and shot in both palms at Westhill way.
One nationalist source acknowledged the attacks but said Mr McDowell had got the term wrong. "In the grotesque way of things up here these shootings are called Padre Pios [ after the Italian cleric who had the stigmata], not Matt Talbots," he explained.
Sinn Féin TD Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin angrily rejected the Taoiseach's Dáil allegations while Sinn Féin in Belfast yesterday said that before and since the IRA ceasefire of 1994 the party consistently opposed "punishment" attacks.
"We are unequivocal in opposing these attacks and work on the ground to stop them through community restorative schemes and other schemes," a Sinn Féin spokesman added.
Mr Ahern directly implicated Sinn Féin's five TDs in the republican attacks. "I refer to the kind of tactics in which you and some of your friends engage," the Taoiseach said in the Dáil chamber on Wednesday, addressing the TDs.
"In recent days a man suffered a broken jaw. He was taken to a lay-by and shot in both hands. The reason for this assault was not known but it was carried out by the Provisional IRA," he said.
"An 18-year-old received gunshot wounds in both hands in an incident in Seaforde Street in east Belfast, responsibility of the Provisional IRA. A punishment attack was carried out on a 19-year-old man. He was shot in both hands and it is believed the Provisional IRA was responsible," the Taoiseach added.
"The other day a 19-year-old man was shot in both ankles in an alley in Serbia Street, Lower Falls, and it is believed the Provisional IRA was responsible and blah, blah, blah," he said.
