The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Ahern, has called on the leadership of Sinn Féin and the IRA to "take a major initiative" to restore confidence in the political process.
Repeating that the Government would not adopt a "business-as-usual approach" to what he called "the Provisional leadership", he said the Government was waiting to hear back from them sooner rather than later on how they proposed to restore trust in the process.
In a speech last night to the Meath Peace Group, Mr Ahern repeatedly used the phrase "the Provisional leadership", echoing the terminology which has been used by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell.
The phrase is designed to display the Government's refusal any more to treat Sinn Féin and the IRA as separate organisations.
It also is an alternative to the movement's preferred moniker, "the republican movement", which other parties are reluctant to use because they see themselves as republican, too.
Mr Ahern said the Belfast Agreement had created the legitimate expectation that criminality and paramilitarism from all quarters would end, but eight years later they had not.
"That's the major cause of this present impasse, nothing more complex.
"It is the clear and simple failure of the various paramilitary organisations, including the Provisional leadership, to heed the will of the Irish people. In their failure they are impeding the implementation of the agreement."
He said the primary impediments to implementation of the Belfast Agreement were decommissioning, criminality and paramilitarism.
"We can't order the Provisional movement to deal with these issues. Only the Provisional leadership can, and that's exactly what we have asked them to do."
He said that after the Northern Bank robbery the Government had asked what he called the Provisional leadership to reflect on how trust and confidence could be restored.
"We made it clear that the major onus now lies with them.
"It is up to the Provisional leadership now to fully internalise and positively respond to the challenges which it faces, bringing all forms of paramilitary and criminal activity to a definitive end," Mr Ahern said.
On Wednesday he had sat with the family of the murdered Belfast man, Robert McCartney, at the same time as the Provisional leadership were posing for the media in Meath throwing snowballs.
"And that juxtaposition really brought home to me the depths of the present crisis," he said.
A sceptical thesis had emerged which suggested that the Provisional leadership wanted a peace process, but not a final peace.
"This thesis suggested that a Provisional movement - born out of conflict - needed to maintain its resonance and allure because behind the dynamics of conflict lay only another banal party with bland policies which must compete on the same basis as everybody else in the political marketplace.
"I have not formed a final judgment on the validity of this thesis. I want to believe that it is wrong and honestly hope that the evolution of events in the coming period will disprove it," the Minister said.