The key to progress in Northern Ireland was an end to republican and loyalist paramilitarism and a guarantee that unionists would share power with nationalists, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said on a day-long visit to the North yesterday.
Mr Ahern emphasised that the fundamentals of the Belfast Agreement were sacrosanct. But in an implicit acknowledgement of the concerns of the DUP, he allowed that there could be some "practical" alterations to the Good Friday deal in the current review of the agreement.
Mr Ahern had engagements in Derry, Coleraine, Omagh and Belfast but his main speech of the day was in the University of Ulster in Coleraine, where he was cordially welcomed by the DUP mayor of the city, Mr Dessie Stewart. There were no protests.
The Taoiseach insisted there was no alternative to the agreement and called on paramilitaries to end violence. "There can be no half-way house between violence and democracy. Similarly, there can be no comfortable resting place between exclusion and partnership," he said.
"For the republican movement, that means bringing definitive closure to paramilitarism. It means absolute commitment to exclusively peaceful and democratic means. For unionism, it means signing up to the imperative of a total partnership based on the inclusion of all parties whose electoral mandate gives them a right to participation."
Mr Ahern said the British and Irish governments were determined to protect the agreement as it dealt with the "elements essential to a divided society and to building relations on and between these islands.
"The agreement has transformed Northern Ireland for the better and there is no going back on this process of change. If there were a better way we would have found it. But there is not."
Mr Ahern welcomed the Government's recent beginning of direct contact with the DUP. "I believe that open and honest engagement will allow us to confirm to them that the Irish Government are honourable and fair-minded partners in this indispensable process.
"My Government's goals are open and transparent. We do not have any hidden agenda. We want to fully implement the agreement. We want an end to paramilitarism. We want to see devolved government fully restored. And we want full and open dialogue with all strands of unionism as well as nationalism."
Experience had shown that while its fundamentals were not open to negotiations, the agreement could be improved upon. "Practical and sensible proposals to improve the operation of the agreement and that attract consensus support among the parties are indeed welcome and will be considered positively by the Irish Government."
Mr Ahern said the Government would continue its work with loyalist leaders "to create vibrant and confident loyalist communities that are stakeholders in the new era of partnership on this island. We recognise their difficulties and challenges in leaving behind the negative agenda of the past and we commend the ongoing efforts of those who are trying to lead people out of the cul-de-sac of paramilitarism."
He stressed that, as well as devolution, the North/South and British/Irish dimension of the agreement was of critical importance. He said the North/South bodies were working well and that the logic of developing an all-island economy remained as compelling as when Northern Ireland businessman Sir George Quigley first pioneered the idea in 1992.
Later, he told reporters there had been an undoubted "sea-change" in DUP politics but that he could not be definitive about whether the DUP would fully share power until he knew the party's proposals on the North/South and East/West nature of the agreement.
He said he could envisage a united Ireland in his lifetime but that it would occur by consent.
