The Taoiseach has said he welcomes the IRA's decision to begin decommissioning and said it provided a "new period and a new opportunity" for the peace process.
Speaking at Government Buildings in Dublin this evening after a meeting with Sinn Féin leaders, Mr Ahern admitted "we were facing into a dilemma we may not have been able to come back out of", and said a "real opportunity" now existed for change in Northern Ireland.
Mr Ahern highlighted the importance that the "security position" in Northern Ireland now be altered in light of decommissioning.
Mr Adams said the IRA had now "liberated the peace process" and said the organisation had taken "a political initiative that is very very painful for Republicans". He said it was now up to politicians to rise to the challenge.
He aslo clle don the British government to move swiftly on demilitarisation.
He wanted to see the day when nationalists in South Armagh or in Tyrone could "live in exactly the same conditions as people in Carlow or other parts of this island, free of the obscenity of a British military presence."
Both Mr Adams and Mr Ahern thanked the international community for its help during the peace process and said the work of the international inspectors and General John de Chastelain, was "deeply acknowledged".
Mr Ahern said he believed decommissioning would help the process significantly, but highlighted the importance of the IRA's decision. "This gives us the lift that we need. And we did need the lift".
Mr Adams said he had been convinced for a long time that the process would work. But, he added, "it is a difficult and historic time that we are condemned to live in".
Asked whether they believed the loyalist paramilitaries would now be convinced to decommission their weapons, Mr Ahern said he hoped people would see that the regained momentum in the process could work for everyone.
He said "we simply want them to stop using their guns and we simply want them to stop using their bombs".
"I just want them to stop attacking Catholics and Catholic property and nationalist families."