The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has unwaveringly held to his allegations that Mr Gerry Adams, Mr Martin McGuinness and Mr Martin Ferris are members of the IRA army council, despite their "categorical" denials of these claims.
Mr McDowell at a press conference with the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, at Hillsborough Castle yesterday insisted that there was no difference of opinion between him and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, in relation to his making these allegations.
Referring to an earlier press conference yesterday in which Mr Ahern appeared to slightly demur from Mr McDowell's naming of the Sinn Féin politicians, the Minister said, "The Taoiseach and I are both telling the truth. In relation to the Taoiseach's language, if you study it carefully he said he does not personally attend army council meetings and therefore personally does not know the matter.
"When I speak on the matter, I speak on basis of the authority of intelligence briefings which are available to me. I am absolutely confident of the correctness of those briefings and the transparency with which I have reflected them."
When it was put to him that feeling "confident" did not necessarily constitute proof, Mr McDowell said, "I am not going to comment on the substance of intelligence briefings that I receive But I want to say this, when I say am confident, I am absolutely clear I am confident. To coin a phrase, what part of the word confident do you not understand?"
Asked was he prepared to make such an allegation in a court of law, Mr McDowell said, "Subject to the rule against hearsay being invoked by whoever is on the other side of the case, the answer is yes."
The Northern Secretary, Mr Murphy, said: "Well, it has never been my practice or the [ British] government's practice to reveal individual names or cases, particularly when there is intelligence involved. But I will say this: we certainly believe that Sinn Féin and the Provisional IRA are inextricably linked.
"I don't for one second disagree with Michael for saying what he has done, but at the same time I think it is important, because this is something of huge public significance that there is an onus on people in the republican movement and those who lead it to give convincing answers."
The Garda Commissioner, Mr Noel Conroy, hinted that some of the nearly £3 million recovered in Garda raids in the Republic last week was part of the alleged IRA haul of £26.5 million from the Northern Bank.
Mr Conroy and the PSNI Chief Constable, Mr Hugh Orde, signed up to new all-island police co-operation protocols yesterday.
They said they could not categorically say that some or all of the money recovered matched the money stolen from the Northern Bank.
Mr Conroy, however, appeared to suggest that technical examination of the money would confirm some of the money currently being examined in Dublin by officers from the Garda Síochána and the PSNI was from the Northern Bank robbery.
Mr Conroy said it would take "quite a bit of time" to carry out all the required technical examination of the money. "We are talking to Hugh [ Orde] and our forensic people, and they will be getting to work in the next day or two to sort all that out. Hopefully they will come up with the result that I expect them to come up with," he added.
Mr Orde said he would not discuss intelligence or operational matters relating to the robbery, when asked in the light of the allegations from the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, why senior Sinn Féin figures Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness had not been arrested.
He was not prepared to say the robbery was "committed by X or Y", indicating that he would not go as far as Mr McDowell.
"I am not clear in my mind who knew at what level, and the crossovers around the issue of inextricable links between the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin. That's not my business. Our business is to solve the crime, and that's exactly what we intend to do," said Mr Orde.
Mr Conroy, when pressed about Mr McDowell's allegations, said he would make no comment about intelligence issues. He said he briefed the Government but "that is a matter for me and the Government".
Mr Conroy said police investigators, in regard to the alleged eastern European link to the money laundering, were prepared to go wherever it took to shut down the operation.
