The Taoiseach has said that the North-South bodies under discussion in the Northern talks should involve "pooling sovereignty to mutual advantage".
However, the Government does not suggest "free standing and unaccountable North-South bodies", according to Mr Ahern, or "a third tier of government, standing above or below the two administrations North and South, which unionists might see perhaps as an embryonic federal state".
Mr Ahern's "pooling sovereignty" statement will seriously annoy unionists, while his assertion that the bodies will not be "free standing" or "a third tier of government" represents the unionist view.
He was speaking at a student law society meeting in Trinity College last night. In the debate the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, accused the British and Irish governments of "gamesmanship" in the talks and said their timetable was too short.
Mr Ahern insisted that the Propositions document, published last month by the two governments to stimulate discussion in the talks, was consistent with the Framework Document of 1995. This contradicts some assertions that the proposed North-South aspect of any pact had been watered down in the propositions document.
Mr Ahern said suggestions that the Propositions document represented a surrender to "loyalist terror and the Orange card" were without foundation. "The Framework Document remains our base position and will be the principal source of most of the ideas which we shall be putting forward," he said.
He said the language in the propositions document on North-South bodies was equivalent to that in the Framework Document. The propositions document said a North/South body would "consult, co-operate and take decisions on matters of mutual interest". This was equivalent to the "consultative, harmonising and executive powers" in the Framework Document.
The Propositions paper reference to "suitable implementation bodies" for decisions taken by a North-South ministerial council was a reference to "North/South bodies with executive powers or functions which will operate under a mandate of the ministerial council". These bodies would administer functions given to them, and would be fully accountable to "the administrations North and South".
"What we are talking about is pooling sovereignty to mutual advantage," he said.
He said an assembly in the North would be part of an overall settlement, but nationalists would not accept one as part of an internal solution. Unionists knew there could be no reversion to Stormont: "That option is not on offer. The balance of power has shifted decisively," he said.
In a speech prepared for the debate Mr Bruton accused the two governments of "gamesmanship" on the propositions document which posed a list of questions to the talks participants. "I have the feeling that the two governments have ready made answers to all of the questions that they are now posing, and are simply giving the participants enough time to fail to answer them in order to allow the governments to bring forward their proposals in the most favourable conditions possible."
He said the governments had an obligation to produce more detailed scenarios than they had produced for the working of the various proposed institutions.
He also said it was "quite unrealistic" to suggest that there would be enough progress in the talks by May to allow a referendum to take place. "There is a considerable length of time left in the present talks process. It is not simply a question of keeping them on the road up to next May. We may have to keep them on the road for the rest of the year."
He said the parties in the Dail should be involved in the discussion of strands two and three issues in the talks, and that a forum should be provided for that purpose.