Dublin reaction: The Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, last night called on the Government to clarify "ambiguity" about the intentions of the Provisional IRA after the failure to reach a new agreement on power-sharing in the North.
He said the two governments should clearly state if the IRA had unconditionally agreed the procedures for total decommissioning which were set out in documents released yesterday.
He said it was not clear what the IRA had actually agreed and questioned whether the draft IRA statement was "simply a version of what the two governments would have wished to see the IRA state".
Mr Rabbitte said the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, should clarify her remarks in the Dáil yesterday when she said "it would be wrong to assume that the only outstanding issue is that of photographic verification".
While Ms Harney's official spokesman declined to explain the remark, he pointed out that Mr Ahern had said that a number of issues were outstanding.
Mr Rabbitte said there must have been some undisclosed "side agreements" on issues such as the release of the killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe and an amnesty for "on-the-runs".
Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, said he was disappointed at the failure of the talks but "the outstanding difficulties regarding the transparency and verification of weapons decommissioning are not insurmountable".
