The Government yesterday described as "positive" a meeting between Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and the Progressive Unionist Party, seen as close to the UVF, yesterday morning.
PUP leader David Ervine led a four-member party delegation to the meeting at Government Buildings, where they discussed the prospects for political progress.
A Government spokesman said Mr Ahern had restated his view, expressed at Fianna Fáil's annual Wolfe Tone commemoration at Bodenstown recently, that the peace process should not leave anyone behind. He said this in the context of calling for a dialogue with loyalists.
Mr Ervine said after the meeting that there was no excuse not to have the Northern Ireland assembly restored by this time next year. "If we allow ourselves to drift into another Northern Ireland summer without having some practical work done on restoration of devolution, then we have no right to be involved in politics," he told reporters.
Mr Ervine said the Taoiseach had given an optimistic assessment of the prospects for progress.
