The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has called on the IRA to make a clear statement on ending illegal activity.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio, he said that this remains a so-called 'red line' issue and that his party and the PDs were united on this.
Mr Ahern said the IRA statement last Thursday had dealt with all the other issues and that he did not expect them to use word for word the two governments' draft IRA statement published in their proposed deal.
The IRA's statement had included all the principles put forward in the draft with one exception regarding recognition of the need 'to uphold and not to endanger anyone's personal rights and safety'.
The IRA had answered on ending paramilitary activity but not on the question of other illegal activity, he said.
In response, Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness said he believed the IRA's statement was clear.
He said it made it plain that the IRA's instructions to members would be around ensuring no-one will be involved in any activity which might endanger the new agreement.
Meanwhile, the Leader of the SDLP, Mark Durkan, has criticised what he called the 'corruption of the Good Friday Agreement' in the proposals on Northern Ireland outlined last week.
Mr Durkan said that the new formula would mean his party would be excluded automatically if it even abstained on the votes for the first and deputy first ministers.
Paisley calls previous IRA decommissioning a 'charade'
The DUP leader, Ian Paisley, has described the three previous episodes of IRA decommissioning as a charade and said that was why his party was insisting on photographic evidence in future.
In a BBC interview, Dr Paisley said there must first of all be an independent observer, who must be free to do what he likes as far as having a notebook, as far having his own inventory, as far as saying what time so many arms were destroyed.
Earlier, the Catholic Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Sean Brady, said that the blame game will not lead anywhere in the bid for a final agreement in the Northern peace process.
Speaking on the BBC, the Primate said that trust must be built between the two communities on the ground.
He also said that a vacuum would be very unhelpful in achieving a deal between the parties.
