Sinn Féin may hope for electoral gain in the South from the latest disposal of weapons, but the action also highlights the enormous progress made over the last year in the North's political process, reports Mark Brennock, Political Correspondent.
It is a sign of confidence in the robustness of the peace process among the Republic's politicians that an act of IRA decommissioning is now seen increasingly by them as a development in the Republic's electoral agenda rather than simply a move to copperfasten progress in the North.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, insisted yesterday that he did not see the latest IRA move "as any part of domestic politics".
Fine Gael's leader, Mr Michael Noonan, said decommissioning was "an indispensable part of the peace process".
In Government circles there is satisfaction that a second act of decommissioning meant it could now be argued that there was a process of putting weapons beyond use, and not just a single gesture.
It is believed in Dublin that the weapons disposed of were of a greater variety and considerably larger quantity than in last year's decommissioning act, and that they were modern, usable weapons rather than obsolete and rusty ones.
All this was welcome and seen as stabilising the situation in the North but an election concentrates minds, and in Dublin politicians' minds are on how this development could affect Sinn Féin's electoral prospects.
Politicians in all the main parties in recent weeks and months have been privately speculating that the IRA would time another act of decommissioning to boost Sinn Féin's image as peacemakers on the eve of a crucial election.
The Labour leader, Mr Ruairí Quinn, referred openly to this factor in his response to the decommissioning act yesterday.
"It may well be that this particular act of decommissioning has been timed with a view to trying to revive Sinn Féin's flagging election campaign in the Republic," he said.
His suspicion of republican motives was echoed by Progressive Democrats chairman Mr John Minihan, who said the timing "could only be regarded as cynical".
"One has to be deeply suspicious of the timing of this announcement which can only be seen in terms of attempting to boost Sinn Féin's election chances.
"But the voting public is unlikely to be fooled by such a cynical ploy," he maintained.
After last summer's Weston Park talks failed to produce any IRA decommissioning, there was widespread speculation among Government and Opposition figures that the IRA would hold off on its first move until close to the general election.
Whatever about the Sinn Féin core vote in the North, it is widely accepted that to increase their support in the Republic, the republican movement has to be seen to take a firm step away from militarism.
After September 11th the enormous reaction against terrorism led to irresistible pressure, particularly from the United States, to make a move on decommissioning.
And the IRA responded with its first, historic, act of putting weapons beyond use, witnessed and verified by the Independent Commission on Decommissioning.
This second move announced yerterday is overdue in terms of the Northern peace process, but in the Republic Sinn Féin hopes it will counter the efforts by the main parties to portray Sinn Féin as still wedded to violence and ambivalent about peace.
The accusations of vigilantism around Sinn Féin members in North Kerry, including its Dáil candidate, Mr Martin Ferris, have dented the party's image, and reports that it may have been involved in the theft of security files from Castlereagh Police Station have also reminded people that the IRA, in Gerry Adams's own words, "hasn't gone away you know".
So this move contains a timely message that while they haven't gone away, they are continuing a disarmament process upon which they embarked last year. Of course Sinn Féin rejects any suggestion that this is a cynical pre-election ploy.
Indeed senior party figure Mr Pat Doherty innocently attempted to suggest yesterday that he did not even know when the election was going to take place - a remarkable notion in the context of a general election in which the party sees a good performance for itself as vital to its long-term ambition of becoming a substantial political force North and South.
But it is remarkable that the disposal of a substantial amount of IRA weaponry, as happened yesterday, is no longer seen as a seismic event. A similar announcement this time last year would have been seen as almost beyond belief. It is a measure of how far the peace process has travelled that this event is now seen as a staging post of modest size in the development of that process.