The Taoiseach will discuss developments in Northern Ireland with the British Prime Minister when he visits Dublin for a British-Irish Council meeting on Friday of next week.

Mr Ahern told the Dβil that he had discussed the peace process with Mr Blair in the margins of the informal European Council meeting in Ghent last month and had kept in touch with him by telephone since then. "We will continue to meet as and when necessary," he added.

The Labour leader, Mr Ruair∅ Quinn, asked if Mr Ahern had received any indications from authoritative sources to indicate if there would be further progress in the putting of IRA arms and armaments, including explosives, beyond use.

The Taoiseach said he had not. "I had a short meeting with General de Chastelain which was more a discussion regarding events that had taken place and his assessment of where matters stand, rather than about the future. I have also held some dialogue with the Northern parties, but those discussions were more concerned with policing and progress in that area."

Mr Ahern added that it should now be left, successfully he hoped, to General de Chastelain and the IRA representative to make ongoing progress. "I would hope that these matters can move on in a calm, organised and low-key manner with General de Chastelain, as was originally envisaged by the decommissioning structures."

Mr Ahern and Mr Jimmy Deenihan (FG) welcomed the GAA's decision to abolish Rule 21, which banned members of the security forces in the North from joining the organisation.

The Taoiseach said that for people to live side by side with each other in society, a police force acceptable to everybody, and seen to be fair and even-handed, was required. The Police Service of Northern Ireland had been established last month, with a new mandate, operating under new arrangements, including policing and partnership boards on which the SDLP was represented, he added.

"We have done all we can to convince Sinn FΘin that it should also move in that direction. We have spent hours on end going through the details of these issues.

"Sinn FΘin is not prepared to do that at this stage, but I believe it will do so following the implementation plan for legislation promised by the British government. In the interim, however, if it is Sinn FΘin's political objective not to move at this stage, young nationalists should not be prevented from joining the new police service."