A deal between Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party to restore Northern Ireland's political institutions will not be done this week, the Government accepted last night.
Up to now, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and other senior Government figures held out hope that an agreement could be formally agreed in Hillsborough on Friday.
The Government remains quietly optimistic, and a spokesman said contacts between senior officials and the parties were continuing.
The Taoiseach was scheduled to speak by telephone late last night with the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, who is due today to meet once again with Sinn Féin.
Following Mr Ahern's own meeting with the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, the Government spokeswoman said it had been a "useful" meeting.
Speaking to journalists, Mr Adams played down the significance of the Rev Ian Paisley's demand for the IRA "to wear sackcloth and ashes and do penance".
"We are seeking to ensure that it is a sustainable agreement. We just think that this should have been done a long time ago. We are being patient," Mr Adams said.
With the political will, the deal could be done today, he said. Whatever the delay, it was not because of Sinn Féin's unwillingness to get it all sorted out.
The DUP leader's remarks had been "unhelpful", he said: "At the same time I am not going to spend the day parsing or analyse what Ian Paisley has, or has not, said. But I do know that many republicans and nationalists will resent his remarks because republicans are no worse than anybody else.
"We are no better as I have said many, many times. The politics of humiliation have not worked. They are the politics of failure. We are about the politics of liberation, not humiliation. There is a need, as Martin McGuinness said, not for humiliation, but for humility," he said, outside Government Buildings.
The future of the four men jailed for the killing of Det Garda Jerry McCabe is "an issue that has to be resolved", he said.
