Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution will be on the table in any talks about the future of Northern Ireland, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said yesterday. Speaking on RTE's This Week radio programme, Mr Ahern said unionists had nothing to fear: "All we want to do is to try and replace killing, murder and mayhem with political, democratic dialogue. That happens in every democracy around the world and I invite them to join with us in that."
He spoke of the continued contact he had maintained with Sinn Fein while in opposition. His adviser on Northern Ireland, Mr Martin Mansergh, had been in daily contact with Sinn Fein since Fianna Fail entered Government.
Mr Ahern spoke to the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, on Saturday. That was the first direct contact he had with him since becoming Taoiseach.
His message to Mr Adams was that the ceasefire must be made permanent and he was in the business of making it permanent.
He said he understood why the republican movement would never say the ceasefire was permanent. They wanted a 32-county republic and an end to British administration. However, they did suggest that they were prepared to work towards a permanent accommodation.
When asked if the ceasefire was not simply the restoration of a broken ceasefire, he said it was easy to be negative. "We could all sit back and watch the ceasefire break down. It is easy to do nothing, but harder to get up every morning and work through complex issues and try and see what parity of esteem means, or see how to deal with the prisoners issues, or how we try to find our way through the three-phase process, find ways of building accommodation within Northern Ireland, finding a new relationship between Belfast and Dublin and a new relationship between Dublin and London."
He spoke of a new form of administration, emerging from dialogue. Mr David Trimble, as the leader of the largest party in Northern Ireland, would probably lead Northern Ireland. That new system would have a North-South dimension.
There would be issues on which both sides would combine and other issues that would be for Northern Ireland or the South alone. "If he could see his way to moving that agenda forward he would find that the Government in the South would be prepared to work with him."
On the issue of decommissioning of arms he said that if it had been fudged, then "so be it". In every international agreement around the world the issue of arms had been fudged. The Mitchell commission had set out fairly what it wanted to happen. The process had to be voluntary and people must be convinced.
That convincing must be done by political leaders, he said. Those involved in paramilitary activities could not stop it. Political leaders must move the agenda forward in such a way that the people of violence would have no mandate. Their mandate came from the ghettos, but if the political agenda moved forward then the people of violence became redundant.
Mr Ahern said he guaranteed the principle of consent. Any agreement negotiated would be put to the people North and South on the same day and to both communities. If people on all sides worked together and took part in substantive and inclusive talks, then whatever the result it must be put to the people and voted on.