The Minister for Foreign Affairs has said the bar will now be set higher for Sinn Féin and the IRA to prove their commitment to ending criminality, saying independent verification of the cessation of such activity will now be needed.
Asserting that it was not "business as usual" for Sinn Féin in the peace process, Mr Ahern said yesterday that before getting involved in the type of negotiations with Sinn Féin that took place before Christmas, this issue would have to be resolved.
He suggested a role for the Independent Monitoring Commission in verifying the end of criminality before a deal was agreed.
Both he and the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, said yesterday they were 100 per cent certain that the IRA had been involved in the £26 million Northern Bank robbery before Christmas. They also said it was unlikely that an inclusive deal would be agreed in the near future as a result.
Mr Ahern said that in the proposed deal produced by the two governments last November, "there was a clear statement that the IRA would not engage in any activity that would endanger people's lives. They obviously were not prepared to come up to the mark on that."
He said that in any further discussions, "the bar will be somewhat higher than it was heretofore" before they could resume "the type of engagement we had running up to the publication of the documents".
Mr Ahern continued: "We need to be absolutely and categorically clear that there will be a total end to criminality and that there won't be a situation as what happened unfortunately with the Northern Bank raid."
Insisting it was not "business as usual" in the peace process, he said: "The raid and the political implications represent a very serious blow to the peace process. The confidence that we have had in this has taken a major hit."
After a meeting in Dublin to discuss the fall-out from the raid, Mr Ahern and Mr Murphy stressed the damage they believed had been done to the political process by the robbery. "It is very difficult to see how we can overcome the difficulties we face in any short period of time," Mr Murphy said. Asked if they were 100 per cent convinced that the IRA was involved in the bank robbery, each separately said: "Yes".
Mr Murphy also had a meeting yesterday with the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell. While Mr McDowell said the robbery was "a stroke at the heart of the Good Friday agreement", both governments remained absolutely committed to it. "There is no other show in town, there is no other political project in existence."
Despite their tough message, the Irish and British ministers made it clear that talks with Sinn Féin would resume shortly. Mr Ahern said the two governments would meet the political parties in the North, including Sinn Féin, over the next fortnight before a meeting between the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister.
Mr Ahern and Mr Murphy will also chair a meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in Dublin on February 1st, to discuss policing, criminal justice, the Cory Inquiry and North-South co-operation.
The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, said yesterday she accepted the PSNI Chief Constable's assertion that the IRA was responsible for the robbery .
She said this put enormous pressure on the peace process. "It questions in particular the commitment of the Sinn Féin leadership, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and others, to democratic politics," she said.
"It is a huge disappointment. That is why in the Dáil before Christmas I'd made it clear that in order for the process to move forward there had to be an end to criminality in all its forms and that was an outstanding issue that had not been agreed."