The PSNI Chief Constable, Mr Hugh Orde, said yesterday the IRA "have got to make a decision and that's really what normalisation is all about".Mr Orde called for legislative changes in an effort to halt paramilitary chiefs being granted High Court bail.
Marking his first anniversary in charge of the police service by a walkabout in Belfast, Mr Orde also warned that the IRA and dissident republicans could be plunged into a feud.
Mr Orde criticised the fact that some of the key paramilitaries were being allowed back on the streets.
"One of my frustrations over the year is where we have been successful in taking out what we would describe as major players, some of whom are now serving long-term imprisonment, was the speed with which they managed to get bail when charged with very serious criminal offences. It may be we need a change in legislation."
Although the loyalist UDA has called a 12-month end to all military operations, Mr Orde said he was sceptical about its motives.
But he said there was no intelligence warning that the Provisional IRA's ceasefire was about to break down.
He added, however, that mainstream republicans still had more to do to help drag the Northern peace process out of crisis.
Mr Orde said: "There are a number of cases going through the court process at the minute suggesting other activity continues.
"At some stage they [the IRA] have got to make a decision and that's really what normalisation is all about. The big disappointment of the last year is that we didn't move the political debate and the political agenda didn't move on as quickly as policing has moved on."
The Chief Constable said that when he took the job he was unaware of just how much scrutiny was placed in what he described as one of the most complex policing environments in Europe.
One of the major threats to peace still came from renegade republican groupings such as the "Real IRA" and Continuity IRA, he confirmed.
Mr Orde accepted that there were tense relationships between the different factions and that fall-outs were inevitable. - (PA)