Failure to reach agreement on decommissioning would be critical for the Belfast Agreement, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said yesterday.

Deadlines were always unhelpful in relation to Northern Ireland, he told the House, while insisting that the Irish and British governments were eager to deal with outstanding issues pertaining to the full implementation of the agreement.

He was replying to the leader of the Labour Party, Mr Ruairi Quinn, who asked if he agreed that the demand for decommissioning came from the democratically expressed will of "an over-riding majority of the Irish people".

As the July 1st deadline set by Mr David Trimble approached, Mr Quinn said, statements were being made by the republican leadership that the IRA would not bow to a demand for decommissioning by either the Ulster Unionist Party or its leader.

"The demand for decommissioning is not coming from one section of the political landscape in Northern Ireland, but from every person on the island who voted in such overwhelming terms in those referenda."

While Mr Trimble had set a date, it was no different from the one already set, the Taoiseach replied. "We said this issue had to be dealt with before the marching season."

To implement the Belfast agreement fully, the two governments agreed a number of outstanding issues remained to be dealt with. On policing, it was clear that the only way forward was to stick as closely as possible to the Patton report.

Demilitarisation was also important to try to reduce the security infrastructure in Northern Ireland. "We are unlikely to see any further developments on that until we see substantive progress on decommissioning."

Everything came back to decommissioning, Mr Ahern added, as said the Government sought to build on the stated position of May 6th, 2000, "that arms would be put beyond use in a verifiable way".

Some people argued that decommissioning formed no part of the agreement. It was clearly in the agreement nonetheless, said Mr Ahern. It had not happened "as per the May 6th 2000 deadline" because progress had not been made on policing and demilitarisation.

"We are ready to try to complete the agenda on policing and on demilitarisation and if we can achieve that, then that should solve the problem."

If not, said the Taoiseach, "we will face a real crisis".