The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has described the IRA ceasefire, which was announced ten years ago today, as an incalculable "blessing" that had saved many lives and helped establish the current peace process.
Durkan: political posturing and a tug-of-war threatened the institutions
Mr Ahern said the Provisional IRA's ceasefire allowed the space for politicians and community leaders from across the sectarian divide to set the peace process in motion and lead to the signing of the Belfast Agreement.
"As one of the architects of the peace process, John Hume, reminds us, there are many, many people alive today or free from injury because of that ceasefire," Mr Ahern said. "That is a blessing that is as incalculable as it is unquantifiable."
"But the peace we enjoy today is an incomplete one," he said. "It is incomplete because both communities remain divided in many interface areas and towns in Northern Ireland, bringing with it sectarian tensions, the dislocation of families and violence.
"There is a particular obligation on political leaders to show the way to a Northern Ireland that has replaced suspicion and hostility with trust and dialogue and violence, or the threat of violence, with the rule of law.
Mr Ahern said he and British Prime Minister Tony Blair remain committed to bring about the full implementation of the Agreement through the re-establishment of the institutions.
Representatives from both governments and the North's political parties are set for tomorrow in Belfast and again at Leeds Castle in Kent, England in mid-September. Mr Ahern said their primary objectives should be ending all forms of paramilitary activity and to see the decommissioning of all paramilitary weapons "to an early timetable and on a convincing basis".
He also called for a commitment to stable partnership government in Northern Ireland and for the republican movement to "accept and support policing and to set the context for devolving policing and justice".
SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkan today accused the British government of damaging the Belfast Agreement by focusing on extremist elements. He said the inclusive element of the peace process had been undermined as a consequence. "We found ourselves in a situation where political posturing and a tug-of-war threatened the institutions and stalled the agreement," he said. "The way the [British] government managed that process was not the way we arrived at the agreement."
Mr Durkan, referring to earlier talks said the focus has been on "problem parties" - Sinn Féin and the Ulster Unionists. "That flawed approach has done damage to the agreement. It hasn't just interrupted the process it has corrupted it."
Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams said the ceasefire demonstrated the IRA was genuinely interested in building the peace process. "The length of the IRA cessation, its discipline in the face of ongoing British military and loyalist activities to sustain the current process, show that it is genuinely interested in building the peace process," he said.
The Independent Monitoring Commission, which was set up to monitor the IRA and loyalist ceasefires, held talks with Mr Blair at Downing Street this afternoon.