THE Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, has expressed his deep regret that no move appears to be taking place to have the IRA ceasefire restored "this side of a general election".
"It represents a general abdication of responsibility," he told a Wexford Comhairle Dail Ceanntair function last night, adding that all armed actions were to be condemned.
Far from being evidence of the IRA's commitment to peace, they would be understood by the vast majority of people as the exact opposite, Mr Ahern said.
The people of Northern Ireland as a whole were entitled to see substantive and meaningful talks get under way, he continued, and on an inclusive basis following a renewal of the August 1994 ceasefire.
There should be no difficulty about giving guarantees that all parties renouncing violence and willing to sign up to the Mitchell principles would be admitted under the ground rules to talks within a matter of weeks, without demands being made in relation to decommissioning that went beyond the Mitchell report.
Mr Ahern also warned that it would be very wrong to permit, at precisely the moment that churchgoers were emerging from Mass, a large loyalist parade playing "party tunes" outside Harryville church. Such a parade could be conducted at almost any other time without causing the same or, indeed, any offence.
He called on the Government to appeal to the British government and the security authorities in the North to at least reschedule, and if necessary stop the parade.
