IN the continuing debate on the peace process, Mr Seamus Brennan (FF, Dublin South) said the apparent consensus in the House was unrealistic. Both governments bore a large share of the responsibility for what happened. They were not acting in unison.
The Taoiseach had abandoned the peace process by delegating it to colleagues and committees. He had failed to persuade the British Prime Minister that a unified approach was essential.
There should be talks with Sinn Fein without preconditions. It should be told there would be all party talks in June if there was peace for three months. If John Bruton delivered the nationalists, John Major should be able to deliver the unionists. "Forget the elections. Negotiations will work, debate will not. If it becomes necessary to elect negotiators, that should be considered.
Mr Jim O'Keeffe (FG, Cork South West) said remarks like Mr Brennan's were unhelpful at a time when there should be a united voice in the Dail. "It makes one wonder where Fianna Fail stand." There was no justification for the violence last Friday.
Mr David Andrews (FF, Dun Laoghaire) said the present situation might be but "a step on the long road to a permanent peace", but it was clear that a return to peace requires more compromise from all concerned. He did not think the people were prepared to allow a return to violence.
"It is now time for courage and leadership again. To use an expression which we have all heard before in this House, it is time to take a risk for peace. No matter what the motives of the IRA were in bombing Canary Wharl, both governments must remain committed to doing whatever is necessary to bring this about and if this means knocking over a few sacred cows and dragging the odd reluctant bridegroom to the altar, then so be it. The alternative is unthinkable.
Minister of State Ms Liz McManus (DL, Wicklow), said she rejected the three month time frame on violence proposed by Mr Brennan. "It is a dangerous, naive suggestion which contradicts the view of his own leader. I suggest that he consider again just how wrong it is. We are democrats. So is the British government Our task is to achieve a democratic solution to the impasse."
A choice for democracy was more essential now than at any other time. The men and women of violence must become the men and women of peace. The peace process would continue despite the bombing. It was increasingly likely an agreed proposal would be formulated, but it would come about a result of frustration, complaint and there would be much disagreement beforehand.
Sinn Fein and the IRA could not escape that truth. "What we are involved in now is the politics of inclusion. The politics of exclusion, on both sides of the Border, have failed. There is no going back now."
Mr Noel Dempsey, (FF, Meath) said he regretted the Government's decision to suspend the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation for four weeks but he was glad the forum was being retained.
He did not agree with the Taoiseach trying to be a persuader of unionist opinion. His role was to be leader of nationalist opinion. The British Prime Minister had the task of persuading the unionists.
Mr Declan Bree (Labour, Sligo Leitrim) said while the behaviour of the unionists and John Major was inexcusable, it was no justification for a return to violence. "Last Friday was one of the darkest and disheartening days in recent Irish history. People were shocked and saddened by it."
At a time when the Tanaiste was engaged on an international campaign to initiate proximity talks, the army council of the IRA was planning to wreck the whole peace process and start the slaughter again.
Dr Jim McDaid (FF, Donegal North East) condemned the bomb but he refused to join the chorus of unthinking people who wanted to put the blame for it on Gerry Adams and his colleagues. They had worked intensely for the past few years in the quest for peace.
"The excuse for breaking the ceasefire was handed to the hard men within the Provos by John Major and his government. They had long ago come to the false conclusion that the ceasefire was permanent."
He hoped John Hume's suggestion of a referendum with two pertinent questions would be seriously considered. If 90 or 95 per cent of the people of all Ireland gave a positive answer, no minority from any side could challenge the result.
Mr Ned O'Keeffe (FF, Cork East) said it was a serious error by the Taoiseach not to speak to Gerry Adams. He had made a sincere and honest attempt to deliver peace. The IRA should be bluntly told that the people of Ireland wanted peace.
Mr Paul Connaughton (FG, Galway East) said the IRA was totally responsible for the London bombing but everyone knew that the peace process was going through a difficult period. He believed no matter what kind, of talks were proposed, the unionists were going to try to find a way out of them.
Mr Des O'Malley (PD, Limerick East) said the Taoiseach's speech on Tuesday had concentrated heavily on an appeal to the IRA to cease violence. In doing so, the Taoiseach was in danger of being seen to react to force as a political weapon with greater alacrity than anything else.
"There is a great dilemma here for us all. The vast majority of people on this island so frantically want peace, and permanent peace, that we are all in danger of, succumbing to seeing this as an issue between the IRA and the British government, in other words of seeing it in Sinn Fein's terms or accepting their agenda."
The reality was different. The kernel of the problem was the inability of the two traditions in Northern Ireland to live together in a normal democratic society without bitter and fundamental mutual distrust.
He was not convinced of the value of an election but he thought John Hume's suggestion, of a referendum should be seriously considered.
Mr Brian Fitzgerald (Labour, Meath) said the republican movement was central to any settlement but the Government was right to break off ministerial contact with Sinn Fein. The message must go to the IRA that there could be no resumption of a campaign of violence in conjunction with the peace process.
Mr Alan Dukes (FG, Kildare) said the most dangerous trap that many people fell into was to condemn the bombing but go on to say how they understood that people could be led into it.
There is no excuse for bombing in any feeling of frustration with the slowness of the political process. There is no excuse for killing or maiming in saying that we have not achieved what we would like to have achieved in 18 months."
Ms Sile de Valera (FF, Clare) said it was imperative that dialogue be kept open and all contacts maintained with a view to moving towards all party talks. John Major had signed up to a document in which he undertook to try to persuade the unionists to talk about the whole Irish question but when the House of Commons arithmetic went against him, he abandoned all that.
Mr Brendan McGahon (FG, Louth) said Friday's bomb was the result of the "appeasement policies" of the Irish and British governments which allowed murder gangs to roam the streets and call themselves by nonsensical names like Sinn Fein, UDA, UVF and so on. "They are all killers."
The Irish Government had meddled too much in the politics of Northern Ireland. It should withdraw and allow its place to be taken by an international commission from the EU to ensure that whatever guarantees the SDLP had been given would be honoured. "Until people here speak unambiguously and reject violence we are going to have fellow travellers of the IRA who justify the taking of life."
The Government's decision not to meet Gerry Adams at ministerial level was questioned by the Fianna Fail spokesman on finance, Mr Charlie McCreevy. "I wonder if this approach is either logical or correct," he said.
While many of the reasons put forward by the Taoiseach were valid, precisely the same arguments could be applied to contacts at official level.
Mr Eric Byrne (DL, Dublin South Central) said those who sought to achieve their aims through the barrel of a gun or the detonator of a bomb could not call themselves democrats. "Part time democracy is not an option."
