The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, last night welcomed the latest de Chastelain report confirming the re-engagement of the IRA in talks about the disposal of weapons.
The report from the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) is the most upbeat to date.
Although it confirms that none of the main republican or loyalist groups has offered to surrender any weapons, the commission says it expects to "build" on the IRA's recent decision to re-engage with talks.
It made specific reference to section of the March 8th IRA statement which referred back to its statement of May 6th last year.
That statement contained the IRA's historic commitment to a process in which it would agree to the "verifiable" removal of weapons from use to maximise public confidence in the peace process.
The report, signed by Gen John de Chastelain and the two other commission members, Mr Tauno Nieminen and Mr Andrew D. Sens, welcomed the re-engagement of the IRA, which it held to be in "good faith".
The report said that since the last submission to the governments, on December 22nd, "there has been no actual decommissioning but the events of the past few weeks lead us to believe that progress on it can be made.
"Meetings in recent weeks with representatives of the UVF and the UFF confirmed their willingness to consider decommissioning their arms. Both groups continue to affirm they will not move on decommissioning before the IRA does so.
"On March 8th the IRA published a statement in which they stated: `the IRA leadership has decided to enter into further discussions with the IICD. This will be on the basis of the IRA leadership's commitment to resolving the issues contained in our statement of May 6th, 2000, and on no other basis'. "
In a telephone call later the same day, the IRA renewed contact with the commission.
"Subsequently a meeting was held between the commission and the IRA representative. At that meeting we reviewed developments since our last meeting and established a basis for further discussions. "We welcomed the re-engagement with the IRA representative and consider it to be in good faith. We will build on it at future such meetings which we expect will occur soon."
The Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, said the report was another sign that progress was being made. "It allows us to move from talking about whether decommissioning will take place, to how."