The Taoiseach has corrected a statement he made in the Dail yesterday that he believed the Garda had given up searching some sites for the remains of those killed and buried by the IRA.
Mr Ahern told the Dail yesterday morning: "I am subject to correction but I believe the gardai have given up on some of the sites while they have intensified their efforts in other locations." A Garda spokesman, responding to the comment, said: "Digs are ongoing and the searches are still continuing at all sites."
Later, however, at a Select Committee on Finance and the Public Service, Mr Ahern clarified his earlier statement. Answering Mr Michael Noonan TD, (FG) who had queried him about it, the Taoiseach replied that having had discussions with officials from the Department of Justice, he had been assured that the gardai had not given up on the searches.
The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains also made a statement yesterday, issued jointly by Mr John Wilson and Sir Kenneth Bloomfield.
It said: "The Commission is currently in the process of visiting each site to review progress on the searches so far and to consider what more may usefully be done with the information received to date.
"At the same time, the Commission remains in contact with intermediaries to ensure that any information useful to these searches is available to an Garda Siochana.
"The Commission deeply regrets, for the sake of the families concerned, that no remains have been found so far. It would like to assure the families, however, that it will spare no effort in obtaining any relevant information or in seeing that any information received is acted upon fully," it concludes.
On March 29th, the IRA issued a statement to the BBC saying it had identified the location of the bodies of nine people, eight from Belfast and one from Tyrone, killed by the organisation in the 1970s and 1980s and buried in secret.
Searches at locations in Cos Louth, Meath, Monaghan and Wicklow began on May 28th. On that day, the remains of one of the nine, Mr Eamonn Molloy, from Belfast, were discovered in a coffin hidden under bushes at Faughart Graveyard, Dundalk, Co Louth.
A diviner visited the site said to contain the bodies of Mr Brian McKinney and Mr John McClory at Colgagh, Culloville, Co Monaghan, on Wednesday, but her offer of help was politely turned down by senior Garda officers, it emerged yesterday.
The diviner had accompanied family members of the men to the site but the party eventually left, having replenished some candles below a wire screen fence bedecked with flowers, prayers and a crucifix.
The Colgagh site has been widely expanded in recent weeks and is no longer a lush green area. A black three-inch plastic tube stands four foot high in the ground to mark the spot initially pointed out by the Commission. From this spot the search has expanded to an area of 80 metres by 30 metres.