The Taoiseach has said Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness have a role to play in curbing IRA activity amid growing Government concern that such violence will end any slim hope of political progress.
In robust remarks rejecting the Sinn Féin account of last Friday's attempted abduction of a republican dissident, Mr Ahern also directly disputed Mr Gerry Adams's claim never to have been in the IRA. "I always assumed that he was, to be frank with you. I'd be surprised if he wasn't, in one form, back over the years."
The Taoiseach's comments reflect growing Government frustration with the failure of the republican movement to control IRA violence, such as the attempted abduction of Bobby Tohill. With the DUP talking of trying to exclude Sinn Féin from Northern Ireland political institutions, and the UUP threatening to walk out of the review talks, Mr Ahern called for an end to IRA violence.
Government sources pointed out last night that Mr Ahern had not raised the issue about Mr Adams's past IRA membership, but had responded to a direct question on it. In his remarks to reporters yesterday, Mr Ahern said he was "not particularly interested" in whether Mr Adams was or wasn't an IRA member at some stage in the past. "I'm more interested in what's happening now. I think Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have a clear role to play," he said.
Mr Ahern flatly rejected the contention by Mr McGuinness that the controversy over the attempted abduction in Belfast last Friday was part of a "vendetta" against Sinn Féin and the IRA by "rogue elements" of the security forces. He asserted as fact that last Friday "four fairly prominent IRA people kidnapped a man from a pub and beat him to a stage where he needed 93 stitches. It is generally believed that he was on his way to his death."
The claim that the expression of concern over this was "a vendetta by anybody" was not worthy of comment, he said.
He said last Friday's attack was not an isolated incident. "Everybody is talking about last week's events because the people were caught. But I read the reports every Monday about what happened at the weekend by all sides and there has been an enormous amount of actions and activities in locations."
He said it was necessary now "to move away from that". Mr McGuinness and Mr Adams had a role to play in this. "They have moved the IRA and the republican movement from a situation where they were deeply embedded in violence and brought them fairly close to the path of peace and political stability."
But he said the question that would be worth finding the answer to was who was now on the IRA army council. "Now I don't know that. I think that's an interesting question." In relation to Mr Adams he would like to know "the status presently and how close he is to the IRA today".
A Government source said later that this was not intended to suggest that Mr Adams was, or was not, on the army council. Rather, it was to say that whoever was on it had a duty to end the violence which was undermining the political process.
Mr Adams expressed bewilderment last night that the Taoiseach would assume he had been a member of the IRA. "The Taoiseach's assumption is wrong," he told The Irish Times.
He also expressed disappointment that Mr Ahern went even further than the PSNI Chief Constable, Mr Hugh Orde, by stating that he had no doubt that the gang who attacked Mr Tohill in a Belfast city centre bar last Friday was from the IRA and was intent on killing him.
Mr Adams said he was prepared to give the Taoiseach "the benefit of the doubt" but said some people believed he was working to an agenda to cause difficulty for Sinn Féin at the time of its ardfheis, which opens tonight.