The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, in welcoming publication of the Independent Monitoring Commission's report on the extent of demilitarisation, has stated that in future its involvement would be "wider and deeper" in terms of monitoring normalisation.
Mr Ahern said the IMC had an important role in examining and validating the security normalisation process and that yesterday's report took stock of what had been achieved so far and how much was left to be done.
"It sets a clear benchmark against which progress towards the Good Friday agreement's vision of a normal society can be measured," he said.
The North's security minister, Mr Ian Pearson, said the report was thorough and showed that there had been a significant reduction in the security profile since December 1999.
He said the British government was anxious to see full demilitarisation as envisaged in the British-Irish joint declaration of April last year. But, he added: "As the IMC report makes clear all normalisation arrangements must be contingent upon and must be measured against the prevailing security threat. The level of community support that the police enjoy is also a vital factor.
"For government's part the day when we can have normal security arrangements in Northern Ireland cannot come soon enough."
Sinn Féin, however, continued to dismiss the IMC as a "discredited" body outside the scope of the Belfast Agreement and a "willing tool of both the PSNI Special Branch and other securocrats within the British system".
Sinn Féin MLA Mr Alex Maskey said: "The fact that the British government have 8,500 troops in Iraq in the middle of a war and they currently have just under 15,000 stationed in the six counties 10 years into a peace process says much about British intent towards Ireland.
"The fact that republican heartlands are still saturated with spy posts and war apparatus almost 10 years on from the IRA cessation is an indictment of the British failure to honour their commitments to demilitarise."
SDLP MLA and policing spokesman Mr Alex Attwood said the report should have called on the British government to do more on normalisation now. "Security statistics across a broad front confirm the reduced paramilitary activity and reduced security threat, although there is still some way to go. The British government should be required to respond to this new environment . . . It is important that the British government is not allowed to use normalisation and demilitarisation as bargaining chips in the political process."
Ulster Unionist MLA Mr Michael McGimpsey said the British government must strictly adhere to its requirement that "further moves on demilitarisation are dependent on the needs for acts of completion and an end to all paramilitary activity".
DUP Assembly member Mr Peter Weir said while "the report repeatedly talks about reducing the security apparatus in Northern Ireland to peace time proportions, it is important that we remember that our province does not presently enjoy real peace".
The full text of the IMC report is available at: www.ireland.com/newspaper/special/2004/
