Next 10 days are crucial - Taoiseach

The prospect of restoring the political institutions in Northern Ireland is too close to call, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said tonight.

Sinn Féin and the DUP are still considering secret proposals put forward by the Irish and British governments in a bid to restore power-sharing before the end-of-month deadline.

Mr Ahern said: “Nobody can call it at this stage. An enormous effort has gone in. The next 10 days are crucial, enormously important.”

He added: “The movements are huge for the parties involved”.

Speaking after a rallying address to Ogra Fianna Fáil youth members in Co Cavan tonight, Mr also praised the efforts of Dr Ian Paisley of the DUP and Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin.

He said: “They have engaged on every issue and tried to find compromises.”

Responding to reporters’ questions, Mr Ahern also said that dissident loyalist groups and racketeering would have no place in the future of Northern Ireland.

He said: “We won’t tolerate loyalist dissidents. They will face the full rigours of the law.

“Neither will we turn a blind eye to racketeering. People who obtain money illegally are depriving their own communities. It’s their own people that lose out.”

In his earlier address to 500 delegates, Mr Ahern stressed that the Northern Ireland peace process reamined Fianna Fáil’s number one priority and that he fully intended to see out the remainder of his government’s five-year term.