The British government will issue its response tomorrow to the International Monitoring Commission report which blamed the IRA for the Northern Bank robbery.
Northern Secretary Paul Murphy will deliver the response to the IMC report to MPs in the House of Commons. The response may include financial sanctions on Sinn Féin - a move likely to be opposed by Dublin.
The Taoiseach is believed to have told the Sinn Féin leadership in January that he would oppose any moves to punish the party or exclude it from the political process in the wake of the Northern Bank raid.
The IMC report, published on Thursday, February 10th, said some Sinn Féin leaders were involved in authorising the £26.5 million sterling
robbery in Belfast on December 20th last. It echoed the same allegation earlier made by the Taoiseach.
The Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, described the report as "rubbish" and challenged the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to arrest him.
The report stated that Sinn Féin members allegedly in the IRA leadership sanctioned the Northern Bank raid and three other major robberies last year in Belfast and Strabane.
"In our view Sinn Féin must bear its share of responsibility for all the incidents. Some of its senior members, who are also senior members of PIRA, were involved in sanctioning the series of robberies," it said.
The IMC recommended that financial penalties be imposed against Sinn Féin, which could take the form of cutting Assembly allowances or pay. Since April last year, £120,000 in Assembly allowances were withheld from Sinn Féin as a result of an assault against Mr Bobby Tohill in Belfast last spring.