The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, today welcomed the "positive aspects" of the de Chastelain report.
|
|
Bertie Ahern: can see an end to the weapons question
|
But said he wanted to see progress made "as quickly as possible" on decommissioning, together with demilitarisation, policing and the stability of the political institutions.
He said: "If you take all the progress (on IRA weapons) together there is an inevitability of getting to the end of this and, of course, we have to keep working to achieve that.
"But there also has to be inevitability that we make progress on all of the other issues and in my view it is impossible to make progress on one without progress on the others."
Ulster Unionist Party leader Mr David Trimble said the report confirmed he was "absolutely right" to stand down as Northern Ireland First Minister over disarmament.
Mr Trimble said today: "There is absolutely no progress and I don't think that it is possible for de Chastelain to continue without some progress being made. I think it is up to the Government now to make matters clear."
In the House of Commons in London the Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John read said Northern Ireland was facing a "serious and sombre situation".
"The basis for progress is in the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, in full, in all of its aspects.
But Dr Reid warned: "I will not hide, from the house, the difficulties we face".
In the Northern Assembly the North's former Deputy First Minister Mr Seamus Mallon said every crisis weakens the Belfast Agreement.
"That the process is in difficulty but intact reflects the fact that the Agreement is owned not by politicians but by the people of Ireland north and south who overwhelmingly endorsed it", he said.
"Each and every crisis and every interruption to the work of the institutions weakens our capacity to fulfil that duty", Mr Mallon added.
Minutes before Assembly debate Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams said the peace process crisis demonstrated the "current leaderships of unionism are not ready for the type of changes that are required.
He said there was no threat to the Belfast Agreement from republicans adding he believed the process would succeed.
"But the British government has to get serious and has to get real", he warned.
PA