THERE were renewed calls for an IRA ceasefire in the final Dail exchanges before Monday's all party talks on the North.
The Taoiseach said that a restoration of the cessation of violence was required so that Sinn Fein could take part in what it had sought for years an opportunity for direct dialogue with all the other parties.
"It is important to recollect that the campaigning demand of the republican movement for many years has been `peace talks now'. Now is next Monday, and the responsibility for ensuring that Sinn Fein can take part in those talks rests on the shoulders of those who have the capacity to decide to restore the cessation of violence that was put in place in August 1994, without any specific date for all party talks being agreed."
Mr Bruton said that if there was a case for a cessation of violence in August 1994, without a date for talks, surely there was a double, quadruple case for a cessation of violence now.
There was a responsibility on all participants, whether they be of the unionist or the nationalist tradition, or neither, to compromise and endeavour to understand the fears and allegiances of their traditional antagonists.
"Compromise is going to be required from all, and I think this generation of political leaders, of whatever persuasion, will not be forgiven if the opportunity made available next Monday is not taken up and used to the full."
Mr Bruton paid tribute to the Tanaiste for the work he had done in the negotiations with Sir Patrick Mayhew. "These have been negotiations of extraordinary complexity and of great difficulty and the Tanaiste has shown tremendous skill, patience and vision in the way that he has managed the substance of those negotiations on behalf of the Irish Government." The Taoiseach also thanked the opposition leaders for their "constructive and probing" attitude in recent days.
The Fianna Fail leader Mr Bertie Ahern, said he was making his last plea in the House to urge the two governments to make every possible effort to create the conditions to bring people of all political persuasions to the table.
He urged the IRA to renew its ceasefire and allow Sinn Fein to operate the mandate it had won in a democratic election.
He hoped the decommissioning issue, which had become an obsession, would be kept in perspective and left to be negotiated as the Mitchell report had recommended. It would be unhelpful and hardline if decommissioning was allowed dominate the talks.
The PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, wished the Government and the various parties participating in the talks well. Everybody attending the talks had a responsibility to show real leadership, she said.
"I believe we are at the dawn of a new era of reconciliation on this island. I think last night's statement from the IRA shows scant regard for the aspirations and hopes of so many people on both sides of this island, and throughout Britain and the United States and elsewhere.
"Every friend of Ireland wants to see a ceasefire, a total cessation of violence, not a tactical cease fire. Politics is incompatible with violence. We must be clear about that and I support both governments in taking a firm stand."
Ms Harney said that if it was to be the case that Sinn Fein was absent from the talks, then, as Mr Seamus Mallon, deputy leader of the SDLP had said, his party was more than capable of representing the nationalist case.
"We must never forget that. They are the real people of courage who never supported violence, and I believe that we should stand by them. From next Monday on, we can put centuries of conflict behind us, if people are big enough to compromise and really want to do a deal."