The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, needs to explain to Sinn Fein why he made "offensive" claims that senior leaders in the party knew that the IRA carried out the £26.5 million Northern Bank raid, Mr Gerry Adams said today.
"What the Taoiseach (Mr Ahern) has accused me and Martin McGuinness of doing is being involved in a conspiracy, to be involved in the prior knowledge of the largest bank robbery in the history of these islands," he told reporters in Belfast today.
"That is what he has accused us of being involved in and I find that highly offensive.
"I believe in straight talking on these issues.
"Some days we are a bit muted in how we deal with these issues, given our relationship with various parties to this process who have played, including the Taoiseach, a very important role in the whole development of the peace process.
"But when it comes down to it, when such an allegation is made with nothing to back it up and it is totally wrong, we need and we deserve both an explanation and some sense of where this path takes us."