Taoiseach calls for progress in North

In a statement to mark the tenth anniversary of the IRA ceasefire the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said that, although it has saved lives, a lasting peace has yet to be achieved.

Mr Ahern said that it is incalculable and unquantifiable blessing that people were alive today who would otherwise be dead had the ceasefire never happened.

But ten years on he said it was time to reflect and to confront the hurdles that remain.

He said that the relative peace currently enjoyed in the North was incomplete so long as the provisionals still retained their arsenals.

This, said the Taoiseach, has prevented trust from developing between the communities.

He said that the meeting of political leaders in Belfast tomorrow and next months Anglo-Irish summit in England must be used to make a final push towards full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

He identified the key issues to be tackled as the prompt and convincing decommissioning, the resumption of power sharing government, and republican endorsement of the PSNI by taking their places on the North’s policing boards.