Sinn Féin chairman Mr Mitchel McLaughlin has said the imminent withdrawal of unionists from the Northern Ireland Assembly now makes it harder to begin decommissioning "on the ground".
"Our difficulty is that when we make presentations to the republican community they are asking legitimate questions on issues such as the Patton Report, the criminal justice review, and why it is possible for David Trimble to cause the peace process to collapse," he told RTÉ today.
Mr McLaughlin said although any announcement on a weapons breakthrough would be the "easy part of the task," he warned that convincing people on the ground to carry out those steps would be harder.
"There are now widespread loyalist attacks on an almost daily basis and these are creating enormous pressure on the ground.
"We have to understand the situation and recognise that the IRA have kept their ceasefire - even under enormous provocation," he said.
He said although there was anxiety and frustration on the Republican side, they had not threatened to resign and cause the political institution to collapse.
"I don’t think anyone is going to tear up the peace process, no matter what happens in Afghanistan. There has been too much progress," Mr McLaughlin said.