The North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, says the paramilitaries are completely to blame for the current problems in the peace process. He was speaking after a North-South Ministerial Council meeting in Armagh yesterday.
The Taoiseach and all ministers attended except the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, and the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith. Mr Ahern played down any sense of crisis in the peace process.
A Government source said the meeting dealt primarily with "everyday, non-controversial matters of co-operation".
He said next week's talks in the North involving Mr Ahern, Mr Tony Blair and the pro-agreement parties would address the pressing political issues.
"Those discussions will be important. They will deal with the deficit of confidence in the political process which is so obvious in Northern Ireland at present," he added.
Blaming the paramilitaries for the current situation, Mr Trimble said: "There isn't a crisis in the North-South Ministerial Council. There isn't a crisis in the British- Irish Council.
"There is no crisis in the Northern Ireland Executive - not even in relation to the DUP ministers who co-operate in everything but attendance.
"The problem is entirely a matter of the action of the paramilitary organisations."
The North's Education Minister, Mr Martin McGuinness, dismissed Mr Trimble's claims.
"We have to be honest about where we find ourselves at the moment.
"There is still a battle taking place within the political leadership of unionism. That more than anything else is putting pressure on the process."
Mr Ahern described yesterday's meeting as "good" and said it proved that the institutions set up under the Belfast Agreement were working positively for people on both sides of the Border.
Mr Trimble denied media reports that he was planning to snub Mr Ahern and Mr Blair at next week's talks by simply presenting his party's position to the two governments and then leave.
The First Minister said such conduct would run counter to the approach he had taken since he had become UUP leader.
Meanwhile, the US administration's "point man" on Northern Ireland, Ambassador Richard Haass, said the IRA should realise it has an interest in greater transparency in the decommissioning process,
Briefing journalists on his trip last week to Britain and Ireland, Mr Haass also expressed some concern that unionist leaders were unwilling to go to greater lengths to sell the achievements of the peace process.
"It is important leaders stress what has been gained," he said.
"Normally politicians are quick to take credit for progress yet I am struck that people who deserve credit don't claim it."
Mr Haass said he was not an expert on the mechanics of decommissioning and did not have a specific proposal to make in regard to the process except to note that although "clearly meant as confidence-building, it hasn't had the desired effect".
He said he believed that the terms set by the IRA for decommissioning lacked transparency.
This lack of transparency meant decommissioning was "working against itself", undoing the very purpose of the acts.