The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, is to meet the leaders of the parties involved in the peace process over the next few days with the focus on trying to keep all the various elements of it moving.
He met Ulster Unionist MP Mr Ken Maginnis last night in Government Buildings in Dublin and is due to meet the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, this evening. According to a Government spokesman, Mr Ahern would, within the next few days, phone the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair. Following the meeting, Mr Maginnis said there were difficulties which he liked to think were "not crisis-management difficulties, but process-management difficulties". He described the meeting with Mr Ahern as "very good and helpful".
Asked if he had concerns about the meeting today between the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, and Sinn Fein Minister of Health, Ms Bairbre de Brun, he said he was not concerned when a minister met a minister or a politician met a politician, but he did not want a "pan-Catholic substitution".
"What I wouldn't want to see is that we project tomorrow's meeting as somehow a substitute for part of the process. We want to see things happening, whether it be in health or any other aspect of government, which will be acceptable to society both here and in Northern Ireland and which will advance understanding and co-operation. What we don't want to see, if I can put it crude ly, is some sort of pan-nationalist or pan-Catholic substitution for what is really necessary."
The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, said last night that political courage was required on all sides to ensure the full implementation of the Belfast Agreement. At the launch of the cross-Border Trade and Business Development Body in Dublin, Ms Harney said it would be a shame if the significant progress to date was undermined by mindsets that were still stuck in the divisive past.
"The tiny minority who remain committed to the violence on this island are the only ones who will gain if we allow a political vacuum to develop in the weeks and months ahead. Political uncertainty provides them with the perfect backdrop for their dastardly deeds. They must be isolated and banished and their attempts to poison our democracy strongly repelled."