Government sources have described as "absolute nonsense" reports in a British newspaper today that informal talks are underway to explore whether Ireland should rejoin the Commonwealth as part of measures to seal the peace process.
Informal, secretive talks have already taken place between officials from both governments on the matter according to the London Times. The newspaper adds that the move would heal a 50-year rift between Britain and Ireland and could be heralded by a visit to Dublin by Queen Elizabeth in the new year.
However, a Government spokesman reacted angrily to the story last night. "The story that there is a package of measures involving Ireland joining the Commonwealth in secretive talks or any other kind of talks is absolute nonsense," the spokesman said.
The Times quotes senior Whitehall sources as saying that "`the subject is still very much in the air"' and says "informal secret talks have already taken place at a high level amid the realisation that Irish public opinion is not ready for such a symbolic move".
The Times says unionists, including Mr David Trimble, the North's First Minister, see Commonwealth membership as a key component of plans to normalise relations between the two countries and to build confidence over the peace process within the unionist and loyalist communities in the North.
Mr Ahern has already acknowledged that the Commonwealth, a 54-strong grouping of former British territories, is "very different" to the British-dominated organisation which Ireland left in 1949.
In an interview with the Times, in November 1998, Mr Ahern said he would not suppress debate on the idea of Ireland rejoining the organisation. Mr Ahern was speaking on the eve of the historic first address by the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, to the Oireachtas.
Mr Ahern has said that the matter of Ireland's participation in the Commonwealth had been brought to his attention by the former president of South Africa, Mr Nelson Mandela, and the former president of Ireland and UN Human Rights commissioner, Mrs Mary Robinson.
Earlier this year, the Taoiseach commented that Ireland had been taken out of the Commonwealth "in a particularly clumsy fashion" in 1949.
"The Ireland of the new millennium should, for our own sake, as we gradually succeed in solving most of our own problems, become more active in the world around us and shed any remaining isolationist instincts or inhibitions," he said, speaking to a Fianna Fail cumann in UCD in January.
Government sources were keen to emphasise however that the Taoiseach's priority at the moment is for the peace process in the North to succeed.
It is understood that at last week's British Irish Council meeting, involving the Irish and British governments and the Northern Assembly, European problems dominated the debate and, in particular, difficulties arising from Ireland being part of the euro zone while the United Kingdom was not.
At the meeting the Taoiseach was asked about the Commonwealth issue but refused to discuss it.
The Times said The Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, was enthusiastic about the suggestion that Ireland rejoin the Commonwealth.
"I'm sure that the British government would be only too glad to support Irish membership, while recognising that the decision is nothing to do with us," Mr Mandelson is quoted as saying.