The Taoiseach said today the latest IRA statements may have helped to resolve the crisis in the peace process had they come earlier.
Mr Bertie Ahern told the Dáil today it was a "great pity" the IRA's endorsements of Sinnéin president Mr Gerry Adams's clarifications on April 27th were not forthcoming until yesterday.
"I believe that an IRA endorsement would have been helpful - though I cannot say decisive - had it come earlier," he said.
However, he said he did not want to downplay the significance and potential of the statement.
"We embarked on this task knowing that it was going to be difficult and that it might prove protracted," he said. "In the frustration and disappointment of recent days there is a natural tendency for recrimination. I will not engage in any such recrimination."
Mr Ahern also said it was essential to convince "reasonable" unionists if progress was to be made. "Without the support of moderate and reasonable unionists it is very difficult to imagine how we are going to re-establish the devolved institutions and allow the Good Friday Agreement to reach its full potential."
Delivering a statement on Northern Ireland tonight, Sinn Féin's Dáil leader Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caolain said both governments had been engaged in a "charade".
"They have tried to fool the people into believing that the clarification provided by Gerry Adams on April 27th was also inadequate in their eyes," he told the Dail.
"I assert that these claims by both governments are totally false and I point to the reality that the vast majority of Irish people now recognise."
Mr Pat Rabbitte, the Labour party leader said that even if the IRA had decided its war was over, the clarification offered may have been too little and too late.
Howeever, he berated the two governments for the decision to suspend the Assembly elections. "While Iunderstand someof the anxieties that have arisen about possible outcomes to elections inthesedifficult circumstances, it is hard to find any normal reason that wouldjustifythe postponement of the elections," he said. "It is unacceptable in any normalscheme ofthings that the people can be arbitrarily deprived of the right to vote."
Fine Gael leader Mr Enda Kenny said stagnation would not only ruin the peace process, but it would "ruin lives" as well.
"Here in Dublin we got a mere glimpse of what a political vacuum can bring: the bomb squad back on our streets after almost 30 years," he said, referring to yesterday's suspected 'Real IRA' bomb attack.
"Certainly, the latest statements from the Republican side are encouraging," Mr Kenny said. "Theirlanguage is promising. But they do not contain the levels ofcomfort andreassurance required by the Governments or pro-Agreement Unionismat thiscritical stage."