Bruton says process will go on with or without SF

THE Government would continue to carry forward the Northern political process with or without Sinn Fein, the Taoiseach said yesterday.

"At the same time, however, the two governments have demonstrated clearly our commitment to hold open the door to a fully inclusive process," Mr Bruton added, but acts such as the Lisburn bombing made it more difficult, democratically and politically, to keep open direct channels of communication.

"It is clear that so tar the Sinn Fein leadership has not convinced the republican movement as a whole to abandon for good the two pronged approach of politics and violence. Some may well be sincere in trying to do so, but it has been suggested that they have accepted the ground rule that there will be no split in any circumstances. Objectively that means that in important matters the hardest of hardliners have been given the final word.

"If that be so, let me say this to the hardliners: If the republican movement wants to be taken seriously as democrats - with all of the benefits which that confers - they will have to get rid of the tactical use of violence - for good. No more Lisburns. No more spectaculars. No more beatings. No more coded warnings. Just the ballot box.

"In what way were the ideals of Tone advanced by the years of IRA violence? The answer is, they were not. That violence deepened existing divisions and created new ones between Protestants, Catholics and Dissenters. Before the IRA started their work, many unionists considered themselves to be Irish. Far fewer do so today, thanks to the republican movement's counter productive strategy."

It had been widely argued, said Mr Bruton, that Sinn Fein and republicans were deceived or let down by the slow progress during the IRA ceasefire in moving into comprehensive talks. "There was a delay. The Government certainly would have wished for a start earlier than that we secured, June 10th. But given the nature and depth of the divisions in Northern Ireland, and the logical necessity of ensuring that the unionists would actually take part in the talks, this delay should not have changed the peace analysis of the republican movement.

"The fact that delay was sufficient to lead to resumed violence raises questions as to the depth of the IRA's commitment to peace, on any terms other than their own. This is reinforced by the fact that active preparation of violence by the IRA continued long before the ceasefire was ended and long after the talks had actually started.

"Fundamentally, the republican movement appears unable to reconcile itself with the fact that the British presence in Ireland is not the British army or state but a million unionists. It seems that they cannot, within their analysis, address unionist concerns other than in a framework which they know that unionists cannot accept."

Mr Bruton said the House must send out a clear and loud message that violence and democratic politics did not mix. "This House, as the democratic representatives of the Irish people, will always reject and repudiate the fascist tactic of the Armalite in one hand and the ballot box in the other. These are not tactics that are alternative to one another. The republican movement, as a whole, must choose once and for all."

Mr Bruton assured loyalists and unionists that the people of the Republic had no agenda for a progressive takeover of Northern Ireland against the wishes of a majority of people there. "If there ever was such an agenda or mentality here, it has certainly gone."

He added that never in history had the Irish and British governments been working as closely on the North. Irish and British ministers met at least three days every week to discuss how to move the talks forward. The Tanaiste and himself were in constant contact with their counterparts.

"If we need a summit, we will have one, but we do not want distract ions, public relations exercises, or hints that solutions can be imposed, colonial style. That is not the way the talks process has been structured in the first place. They have been structured to achieve agreement between governments and a sufficient consensus of the parties in Northern Ireland."

Repeating his condemnation of the IRA bomb attack in Lisburn, the Taoiseach said its timing was directly and cynically aimed at destabilising the loyalist ceasefire.

Some might argue that the bomb could have been a last spectacular by the IRA as a prelude to calling a ceasefire. "If that is the calculation of the leaders, it hardly suggests that any ceasefire that follows it will involve a real acceptance of the Mitchell principles by those who ordered the two Lisburn bombs."

Mr Bruton said it did not suggest a new ceasefire would necessarily "hold in all circumstances", nor did it suggest the republican movement had transformed its analysis in any profound way.

"This line of argument shows that the IRA will have a significantly difficult task to convince the rest of us that a further ceasefire, whenever called, is in fact credible and irrevocable."

The Taoiseach said the democratic political process in the North was embodied by the multiparty talks which resumed on September 9th. "These talks have all the imperfections that are inherent in the democratic process everywhere, but which are especially evident when the divisions are profound. The difficulties encountered in those talks cannot be used as the excuse or the reason for a heinous act like the Lisburn bombing.

"Of course the talks are slow our own Forum for Peace and Reconciliation did not conclude its much simpler task all that quickly and the divisions there were much narrower than they are in Belfast. Some progress has been made in Belfast.

After all, Mr Bruton said, agreement was eventually reached on rules of procedure for the talks and Senator George Mitchell remained the chairman of the process. Neither of those agreements would have been conceivable in the failed talks of 1991-92.