Government reaction: The IRA's criminal and paramilitary actions will have to end completely if the Belfast Agreement is ever to be implemented fully, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has said.
Speaking before last night's second IRA statement, Mr Ahern sought to play down the organisation's warning on Wednesday night that it would not remain "quiescent".
"I don't read the IRA statement in a negative fashion. Quite frankly, they are saying what is a fact: that negotiations have broken down, that everything is off the table.
"That is the normal course in negotiations," said Mr Ahern, who spoke to journalists before attending a Dundalk Chamber of Commerce lunch.
Rejecting Sinn Féin's charges that the Government had changed its stand, Mr Ahern said: "There is no change of emphasis by the Irish Government whatsoever.
"I don't believe that there is in the British government either. But there are a few realities that I want to repeat. We cannot make the peace process work and achieve the restoration of the institutions until we have a complete end to criminality, paramilitary activity and the decommissioning issue."
He declined to respond to the claim by Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, that he is a "poodle" for the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell.
"Martin McGuinness, in my view, is a good negotiator for his party and I think we think a lot about him, so I am not going to get into that kind of language," he said.
"I have one thing to say to Martin McGuinness. The reason we have not been able to make progress since December 8th is because there was a bank robbery on the Northern Bank," he added.
"I did not rob the bank. Martin says that he didn't rob the bank. My political party didn't do it. My political movement didn't do it.
"We have to resolve that issue and try to move on and Martin has a bigger part to play in that, unfortunately, than I do. I look forward to Martin coming back and helping us to try to find a way forward."
Following the last Northern Ireland Assembly elections, Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party, as the largest parties, must be the ones to lead the Executive. That cannot happen without "cross-community support" and unionist confidence that the IRA's actions are over, Mr Ahern told journalists.
"We should not try to confuse anybody about this. We have to try and keep it around why, 10 years on, we keep having a difficulty. The difficulties are centred around [ the] IRA."
The IRA's criminality, paramilitary activity and decommissioning were not just problems in last December's negotiations but had "arisen several years ago".
"I am just trying to resolve the outstanding issues and the outstanding issues are the ones that I have said," said the Taoiseach, who was accompanied by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern.
Meanwhile, the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, was sharply critical of Wednesday's IRA statement. "[ It] is a disgrace. I only recognise one army in this country.
"I don't recognise the Provisional IRA. What they have on the table was not good enough and they have to commit to ending criminality in all its forms.
"Every day IRA volunteers take young men down alleyways and break their legs. That's unacceptable behaviour, not compatible with the Good Friday Agreement or the peace process.
"As far as the IRA are concerned, I think they have authorised a lot of crime, they are not going to blackmail the Government and we are going to continue to work with the British government and the parties in the North who are committed to the Good Friday Agreement."
