Ahern looks to loyalist leadership

The refusal by the loyalist paramilitaries to match IRA decommissioning will not block progress on the Belfast Agreement, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Sinn FΘin president, Mr Gerry Adams, have agreed.

Speaking in Government Buildings in Dublin yesterday, Mr Ahern said: "It is not a question that they should follow tomorrow, in my view. I am not in the business of lecturing anybody and I am not going to lecture loyalists."

The leaders of the loyalist paramilitaries' political wings, the Progressive Unionist Party and the Ulster Democratic Party, were "impressive individuals" who wanted to see the agreement implemented, he said.

The sectarian tensions on the Garvaghy Road, north Belfast and around the Holy Cross School in the Ardoyne area of the city "can't be comfortable for anybody", Mr Ahern, said following a 40-minute meeting.

He hoped that everybody, including the loyalists, would now use the momentum created by the breakthrough on arms "as they did before to make it better for everybody".

Mr Adams said: "I am not concerned about the loyalists weapons and about how they decommission them or don't decommission them.

"I just want them to stop, to stop attacking Catholics and Catholic properties and nationalist families. I want them to stop the hatred and sectarian actions against the small Catholic schoolchildren in Holy Cross School.

"If we get the weapons silenced, then the issue of what happens to those weapons can be dealt with at some other point," Mr Adams continued.

"There is no big demand within the Sinn FΘin constituency for the loyalists to be put through hoops on the issue of guns. We simply want them to stop using their guns and to stop using their bombs."

Mr Ahern repeatedly praised the "leadership " shown by Mr Adams and other Sinn FΘin figures, including the Kerry North general election candidate, Councillor Martin Ferris.

It had offered "a real chance, a real opportunity" of moving on. "We were facing into a dilemma that perhaps we would not have been able to come back from," he said.

Lost time must now be made up. "We in the Government were very pleased that David Trimble the Ulster Unionist leader and his colleagues have so embraced what has been achieved over recent days.

"We think that is immensely important."

Questioned about the British decision to remove some military posts, the Taoiseach said: "We acknowledge what the Secretary of State [Dr John Reid] has done today, but we want to see all of things that we have talked about for a long time moved forward."

Mr Ahern avoided a public confrontation with Sinn FΘin over its calls for the release of those convicted of the manslaughter in Adare, Co Limerick, of Det Garda Jerry McCabe.

"We know what we have to deal with, but we are not in the position, either of us, in the business of deals. We are in the situation of trying to change things for the better," said Mr Ahern.

The Taoiseach and the Sinn FΘin president said they equally were keen to ignore differences on RUC reform.

Mr Ahern said he wanted the current plan implemented, while Mr Adams acknowledged that the Government has "a different responsibility from a party like Sinn FΘin".