Northern Ireland Policing Board deputy chairman, Mr Denis Bradley, has been sharply criticised by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, following his charge that the Government has pulled back from the peace process.back from peace process is wrong
On Sunday, Mr Bradley said the Taoiseach had cut back on his efforts to make progress because he was "in a huff" with Sinn Féin and the IRA because of promises that were broken last October.
Speaking shortly after a 70-minute meeting with the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, Mr Ahern was quick to issue a barbed comment when asked about Mr Bradley. "He must not have known that I had a meeting today. I normally don't meet people that I am in a huff with. I wouldn't bother having a meeting.
"I greatly admire and respect Denis Bradley for the work that he has does, and he does that very well. I don't deal with him on the day-to-day political issues. He wouldn't have much knowledge of what was going on. But, needless to say, on this occasion he is 100 per cent wrong," he said.
The wounding nature of Mr Ahern's replies indicates his level of anger at Mr Bradley's actions: "He was being entirely disingenuous," one Government source said last night.
Meanwhile, Mr Ahern said his encounter with Mr Adams in Government Buildings yesterday afternoon had been "very good", where both men had "focused on the basis for advances".
"Between the Government and Sinn Féin, there was a willingness to engage and try to move the agenda forward," he said after a meeting with the Lebanese Prime Minister, Mr Rafik Hariri.
However, the Taoiseach, who will meet with the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, on Sunday, continues to downplay the prospects of speedy progress.
"Whether we can make pro-gress, sufficient progress, by the start of June, I am not so sure," he said, though he emphasised that efforts will not slacken.
"But I think the determination (there is no lack of willingness by me or the British government) to start negotiations now and put as much work as we can over the next number of weeks and then see if we can take it up successfully later on. It is really important that we have a good summer.
"Everybody knows what the outstanding issues are: the DUP, Sinn Féin, the other parties. We will try to engage on that agenda. The sooner the better."
Clearly keen to improve relations with Sinn Féin, Mr Ahern went on: "Both of us certainly agreed that whatever arguments, whatever bitternesses that have been around for some time the big picture is the peace process."
The Sinn Féin leader tried to be equally positive: "It was good that we had the meeting soon after what I characterise as very negative developments last week and I think we had a frank discussion." Mr Adams predicted that the pace of official public contacts and "intensive discussions, some of them understandably privately" will now intensify.
Such contacts were necessary, he said. "I think we are in for a continuation of the sort of bad atmospherics, a process which is in stagnation and increasingly where people don't have any confidence that it is being sorted out.
"We go forward in hope. We are not naïve about these matters. We know that these matters have to be tackled, have to be dealt with.
"The problems have not gone away. Don't anyone think on a warm, sunny afternoon that these problems have gone away, but I think that we at least have the promise of a focused approach to try and resolve these problems."
Questioned about Mr Bradley's intervention, Mr Adams said: "Without being disrespectful to Denis Bradley, when you hear Denis Bradley making those remarks then you know that there is a problem there. But these issues still need to be resolved and the job of politicians is to resolve them." Despite Mr Adams's complaints, Mr Ahern again rejected his criticisms of the Government's decision to cancel Lancaster House talks in London last week.
"There is no point having meetings unless people are prepared to move. The judgment that was made was that people were not prepared to do so.
"The Government does not want to be going around raising expectations when there is not a basis for that," one senior source told The Irish Times last night.
