'I have never given up on the view that Ian Paisley was prepared to bring his party into an inclusive executive'
Sinn Féin and the DUP will sign up to the proposals put forward by the Irish and British governments in St Andrews in Scotland last week, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has forecast.
Acknowledging that the talks produced proposals and not an agreement, the Taoiseach said all of the North's parties "had been through all of the elements of the agreement" and had sight of all of "the minute details. We have made all of the amendments that we could to satisfy as many as we possibly could", he told RTÉ's This Week programme.
He said he hoped that Sinn Féin and the DUP would respond positively. "They have to go through their own processes. This is a big decision. They have to come back to us and respond to us in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, there won't be too many wrinkles in all of that," he said.
The DUP had to show during the three days of talks that it was prepared to share power with Sinn Féin, he said.
"The answer to that is 'Yes'. They have made that clear if all of this happens, as is listed out and as put forward in this, they will go into a powersharing executive."
Sinn Féin, meanwhile, had faced questions about whether it would join the Northern Ireland Policing Board, and support the Police Service of Northern Ireland. "The answer to that, again, is yes, but again the process has to roll in the weeks ahead on that particular issue.
"We won't have to wait long to see if that is a reality because effectively when the first minister and deputy first minister are nominated on the 24th then the die is cast. We will not be waiting long to see if the die is cast." But he was more than hopeful that all parties would agree. "We have an understanding that they will. That will be truly, I think, be a historic day.
"Hopefully, we will not get into any difficulties. You can never be a 1,000 per cent certain in any negotiation but if that happens, then on the 24th of November the first major step in this process will have taken place," he said.
The situation will have to be "managed carefully" up until the November 24th deadline. "After that the process should roll itself out in a very structured and ordered way," said Mr Ahern.
Meanwhile, Mr Ahern said Sinn Féin should now be separated from the IRA.
"I think first of all we should in fairness try to distinguish between the two organisations. Sinn Féin is doing their utmost as shown by the Independent Monitoring Commission."
The IRA's Northern Bank haul in December 2004 and elsewhere is a matter for police forces to investigate and prosecute, where possible: "It isn't part of these issues. I think Sinn Féin is doing its utmost to move away from these issues."
Asked if Sinn Féin had "any control" over this, Mr Ahern said: "They haven't." He said part of the St Andrews negotiations had centred on the effort to "move to a new understanding that linking Sinn Féin to Sinn Féin/IRA would be something that we could leave behind us because it is not helpful to the process at this stage.
"Obviously, the governments through the arms of the state will continue to seek the proceeds of any robberies of any sort. There is no ceasing in that effort."
He said he had always believed from the collapse of the December 2004 bid to relaunch the North's political institutions that DUP leader Dr Ian Paisley was prepared to enter power with Sinn Féin.
"I have never given up on the view that Ian Paisley was prepared to bring his party into an inclusive executive working the Good Friday agreement as amended by the review."
During the Scottish talks, he said Dr Paisley had assured him that "he was up to make this process work. Right throughout the negotiations we had close and harmonious dialogue.
" Remember in 1998 he was outside the gates, literally. This time we had everyone in there".
Congratulating Dr Paisley on his golden wedding anniversary, he said: "I would wish the entire Paisley family, Ian senior and Baroness Eileen every best wish on their 50th anniversary. It was nice that we were all together to wish them well on that," he said.
Responding to a question on an editorial in Friday's Irish Times, Mr Ahern said he had "always been taught that the public were right" in the judgments that they made about politicians.
He had, he said, been "on the wrong side of that many times", but he added: "People have been very fair and very kind. I think that people have been very fair. If I have had one letter, I have had literally thousands and I will endeavour to respond to all of them".
He said the Republic was a democracy with a free press, but that it "was best" if all sides left the final decision on the controversy about his personal finances to the voters.
He said the controversy had caused "a lot of upset to people" close to him, but that he had offered his apologies to all of them during recent days and weeks.
