The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has ridiculed as "childish" and "silly" the repeated claims by Mr Gerry Adams that Sinn Féin and the Provisional IRA had no involvement in criminality and the Northern Bank robbery. Arthur Beesley and Dan Keenan report.
As Mr Adams said he wanted to meet the Taoiseach as soon as possible to try to calm the fevered political atmosphere, Mr Ahern went on the offensive to describe Sinn Féin's repeated denial of IRA involvement in the robbery and other crimes as "senseless".
A day after the Independent Monitoring Commission report led to renewed tensions between the Government and Sinn Féin, Mr Ahern dismissed Mr Adams's claim that he should arrest the Sinn Féin president for involvement in the robbery.
At a Fianna Fáil function in Naas, Co Kildare, he said the law of the land did not allow him to arrest anyone.
"I just want to get on with it. I think all of this thing is a little bit childish, a bit of nonsense. There are serous matters that have happened and it's no good people letting on that they didn't. That's silly," he said.
Mr Ahern said that the IRA's involvement in crimes set out in the IMC report was a matter of fact and had been corroborated by the Garda, the PSNI and the British government.
"They've happened. We knew they've happened. And all we want to do is get to the end of it and get on with implementing the Good Friday agreement," he said.
"Letting on that the other cigarettes weren't taken, or that the drink wasn't taken, or the petrol wasn't taken, or the punishment beatings didn't happen, sure that's kind of childish stuff and, I mean, all we were stating were facts."
Mr Adams, angry at the accusations against Sinn Féin and the IRA, said the Taoiseach "should stop making these malicious and untrue allegations".
In Stormont yesterday, he said it was important that genuine dialogue should be conducted in an atmosphere which makes success possible. "That is one of the reasons why we are so vigorous in defending ourselves from these accusations." He also repeated the claim that Mr Ahern's intention was to continue his criticism of Sinn Féin for electoral reasons, based on a desire to criminalise the party and its electorate.
The Ulster Unionists said the Northern Bank robbery had shattered what remained of unionist faith in Republican participation in the political process.
Mr Michael McGimpsey, a former minister in the executive, said Unionist people on the ground were saying Sinn Féin cannot be trusted and that Republicans spoke with forked tongues.
"An involuntary coalition or an executive won't work any more. We need to examine new ways of exercising power that don't involve a republican movement that, over the years, because we tested them, have proven to be untrustworthy, unfit for government and incapable of making the transition from criminality and paramilitarism to exclusively peaceful and democratic means."
Drapier: page 13; Garret FitzGerald: page 14