The Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister have refused to concede defeat in their search for a power-sharing deal despite the failure to break the deadlock over photographic verification of IRA decommissioning.
Mr Blair and Mr Ahern yesterday unveiled the details of the proposed deal which would have brought total IRA decommissioning, Sinn Féin signing up to policing, and a power-sharing Northern Executive and Assembly.
Despite widespread pessimism, the Taoiseach has already instructed his senior officials to continue intensive contacts with the DUP and Sinn Féin in the coming days. A senior British source said last night that Mr Blair was determined "to keep the momentum going and not to stand back and just let things sit".
The core of the proposed deal published yesterday by Mr Ahern and Mr Blair is in a two-page timetable for restoring devolution, which would have unfolded if an agreement had been sealed. It involved a series of sequenced events where the IRA would end activity and disarm completely by Christmas, and where a power-sharing Executive and Assembly would be restored by Easter.
It also envisaged Sinn Féin signing up to policing in the relatively near future after there was agreement on devolving responsibility for policing and criminal justice to Stormont.
The blueprint ultimately fell over the inclusion of a requirement for the IRA to allow publication of photographs of decommissioning after the restored Executive went live.
Republicans claimed that this requirement was designed to humiliate, not to verify, and also cited the recent comments by the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, about "humiliating" republicans as one of the reasons for the failure to fully resolve the decommissioning issue.
Dr Paisley said he made no apologies for seeking the humiliation of the IRA and insisted republicans were solely responsible for the failure of the deal.
As recrimination flared between Sinn Féin and the DUP over the failure to conclude a deal, Mr Ahern and Mr Blair pledged to resume their efforts quickly to bridge the final gap to a historic and comprehensive agreement.
The Taoiseach and Prime Minister still believe there is a reasonable chance of obtaining agreement, if not before Christmas, then early in the new year.
However, the looming British general election and the UK presidency of the EU and the G8 group of nations means that they have only a relatively short timeframe to strike a deal.
Mr Ahern and Mr Blair decided to travel to Belfast yesterday to publish their proposals for restoring devolution despite the fact that they knew that their blueprint would fail.
At their press conference in the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, Mr Ahern said there was nothing to be gained by the "blame game" and it should not be beyond the capability of politicians to resolve what effectively was the one last issue of photographs.
"I would like to see this finished by Christmas, and I still believe that is possible," he said, although later conceding that the pre-Christmas deadline might be "aspirational".
Mr Blair added: "I may be weary, but not downhearted. I think there is an inevitability to the process that is now locked in. I cannot see this process going backwards, but I do know it is going to require extra effort to finish the journey."
The Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern, will meet the parties in Belfast next Wednesday. The following day, at the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in London, the two ministers will further discuss whether there is a real prospect of a quick resolution.
Then the following day, Friday week, the Taoiseach and Prime Minister will meet on the periphery of the EU summit in Brussels to test whether the final obstacle can be surmounted.
Proposed agreement: the key points
- IRA would decommission all weapons by end of December "in a way which further enhances public confidence"
- IRA would instruct members not to endanger the agreement
- De Chastelain's Commission would confirm decommissioning, with photographs taken which would be shown to the governments and parties, and made public later
- DUP would agree to work in an inclusive Executive
- Sinn Féin would agree to hold an ardfheis to decide on its support for new policing arrangements
- A shadow Assembly would be set up in January; a committee would work on a policing agreement
- Suspension of Assembly would be lifted in February; First and Deputy First Minister would be confirmed by Assembly in March
- Britain would enact legislation for the devolution of criminal justice and policing early in the summer
