Sinn Fein has "never, ever" been told by the Taoiseach or any other representative of the Government that it will be barred from the Northern executive unless there is IRA decommissioning, the party's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, said last night.
It was put to Mr McGuinness at a news conference in Stormont that, as reported at the weekend, Mr Ahern would oppose Sinn Fein membership of the new cabinet if there was no IRA handover, or destruction, of arms in advance.
"Well the obvious question is why has he not told us that?" he responded. When it was suggested to Mr McGuinness that he had in fact been told, he said: "You are wrong. I can refute that categorically.
"We have never, ever been told by Bertie Ahern, any senior politician in the Government or any of Bertie Ahern's officials who we meet on a regular basis - the highest officials, civil servants in the country - what you have just put to me."
When pressed Mr McGuinness said: "I am telling you now, word of honour, and I don't tell lies. We have never been told that." To suggest otherwise was "totally and absolutely wrong".
He continued: "If there is confusion about the Irish Government's position, the people to ask about that are the Irish Government.
"Our position is very clear, we meet with the Irish Government on a consistent basis, we meet with their most senior officials on a most consistent basis. We have never, ever had that put to us and if we had we would reject it."
He added: "We were never told anything by a senior member of the Irish Government or the civil service which would indicate that the Irish Government was of a view that Sinn Fein should be barred from positions on an executive unless there was IRA decommissioning."
Mr McGuinness said the British government had "never" put such a proposition to Sinn Fein either. "There's a simple reason why they didn't: because they can't. Because to suggest anything along those lines is clearly to throw into the waste-paper bin the Good Friday agreement."
He predicted that the executive would be established in shadow form in early March, adding that all the indicators were that it was intended to set up the executive proper by the March 10th target.
"I can only go on what has been put to me. We have our own conversations with the British government and time scales are put to us and the time scales that have been put to us clearly indicate that Mo Mowlam has no intention of stalling around and allowing this process to limp on right into the European elections and into the marching season."
If Dr Mowlam (the Northern Ireland Secretary) proposed to depart from the timetable she had herself outlined, Mr McGuinness said, "we are going to have to talk to her about that. We are going to have to talk to her about the reasons for that.
"If people think putting it back is going to lend itself towards, if you like, `Let's increase the pressure more on Sinn Fein in the belief that Sinn Fein can get the IRA to decommission', then I am afraid they are living in cloudcuckoo land. So that's the reality that we're dealing with: let's face the reality here."