The Taoiseach has appealed again for "clarity" from those required to complete the transition to exclusively democratic means in the North, warning that failure to resolve difficulties now will involve "incredible risk" for the political process.
As time runs out for agreement before next month's scheduled Assembly elections, Mr Ahern said the alternative to a deal now was a "drift" until at least the end of the loyalist marching season. "I think that is very dangerous," he said, and "an incredible risk to take".
He was speaking to reporters at Arbour Hill, Dublin yesterday after giving the address to Fianna Fáil's annual 1916 Commemoration. In his speech, Mr Ahern said he and the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, remained ready to publish their proposals for the way forward.
However they would only do this "once we are satisfied that the responses to them will contain sufficient clarity to restore the necessary confidence in the process. Unless our proposals, together with the responses they engender, produce the right confidence-building impact, there is little point in publishing them." He added that just as incrementalism would no longer work in the process, neither would ambiguity.
He said the governments' joint proposals provided a comprehensive framework for acts of completion by all sides that would fully implement outstanding aspects of the agreement. "They impact on all the key areas - policing, criminal justice, security normalisation and the entrenchment of human rights and equality at the heart of the new dispensation in Northern Ireland," he added. "Five years after the agreement, people are entitled to know the intentions of their prospective partners in the process," said Mr Ahern.
"There are issues which, despite the best efforts of the parties involved, we have still not resolved. I cannot say at this time whether we will succeed in resolving them or when we might be able to do so." The governments were challenging Sinn Féin to stretch its constituency once more in the interests of peace and political stability, he said. An "act of completion" was required from the republican movement if the political process is to prosper.
He appealed to republicans to make the required "acts of completion" and to unionists "to make it clear they are fully committed to inclusive institutions".
The Taoiseach said that as an Irish republican, he was very mindful of the contribution that the leadership of Sinn Féin had made to the process over the last decade. "I am also very conscious of the courage and skill they have demonstrated in bringing the republican movement with them," he added.
Others too must shoulder their responsibilities, said Mr Ahern.
"Assuming the necessary acts of completion are forthcoming from the republican movement, the unionists need to make it clear that they fully committed to inclusive institutions," said Mr Ahern. "The stop-start approach to the operation of the agreement must be brought to an end."