IRA action forcing SF to assess connection - Taoiseach

THE current state of the peace process has led to a new round of uncompromising exchanges between the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, and the president of Sinn Fein, Mr Gerry Adams.

Asserting his commitment to the peace process in the Dail yesterday, Mr Bruton said he believed there was evidence that "some of those in leadership positions in Sinn Fein" were trying to bring the whole republican movement around to a full and practical acceptance of the Mitchell Principles.

But the actions of the IRA, he said, were an attempt to give an answer to the two questions posed by the Government to Sinn Fein "by a section of the republican movement".

He had been informed by the Garda yesterday, Mr Bruton announced, that among the arms finds in Clonaslee, Co Laois, were dozens of bombs "of a new type" in the course of being assembled.

The Garda believed the bombs were intended for early use. Later a Garda spokesman said that, in fact, it was timers that were new and some of the mortar heads were already packed with explosives, suggesting they were intended for use in the near future. Responding to the Taoiseach's statements, Mr Adams said last night he could only form a judgment that "he has decided that the peace process cannot be restored. I hope this is not the case, but if it is then I believe he is making a huge mistake".

Regardless of the difficulties all of them faced, it was their duty and responsibility to seek to bring about an inclusive peace settlement. Mr Adams claimed that "despite his protestations to the contrary, Mr Bruton has closed the door on Sinn Fein. This is following his own party political instincts, and it is not good enough."

Answering a series of questions from Opposition leaders, Mr Bruton insisted that lines of communications with Sinn Fein remained open.

It was just not possible, if the peace process itself was to be genuine and strong, to go on acting as if Det Garda Jerry McCabe had never been murdered as if the Manchester bomb had never been planted or to go on acting as if arms, bombs and mortars were Cot being assembled in this State during the all party negotiations, he added.

"These events have changed she objective circumstances and context of the Government's previous relations with Sinn Fein," the Taoiseach said. "There is a connection between the IRA and Sinn Fein. No one denies that, and the IRA's involvement in three recent terrible events changes things."

It was these events themselves, not the Government or the media, that was forcing Sinn Fein to face fundamental and difficult questions, to face the questions the Government had put to it.

Claiming that the Government's two questions flowed directly and inexorably from the Mitchell Principles, Mr Bruton said that in the light of Sinn Fein's links to the IRA, and recent IRA activities, it was essential to know where Sinn Fein stood on the use or threat of force to influence the all party negotiations.

The main lesson of the 1994 ceasefire, he continued, was that it was vital to face difficult questions beforehand. He wanted the next ceasefire to be more durable, and that was why it was best to face difficult questions honestly and publicly.

In answering the Government's questions, Sinn Fein would be doing no more than it would have to do when it joined the all party negotiations, "if and when they do so".

In his statement, Mr Adams said he had given Mr Bruton "frank, honest and clear responses" to the questions he had put to him. "I am still perplexed as to the rationale behind these questions," he added.