THE Taoiseach was one of the few on the Government benches to applaud the excellent speech, by the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, even if the latter objected to the leader of Democratic Left being involved in Anglo Irish negotiations.
It was one of the best speeches in the Dail on Northern Ireland for a long time and an admirable analysis of where the peace process stands, how it has arrived there and where to go next.
Mr Ahern exposed the "enormous contradictions" in the Sinn Fein/IRA position, gave a damning account of the "serious mishandling of the peace process by the British government" and even implied that his predecessor, Mr Reynolds, could have "done more to tie down firmly" Sinn Fein/IRA and London before the ceasefire "to more explicit commitments, assuming this could have been achieved."
Of course, the Taoiseach, the Tanaiste and Mr De Rossa also gave their appraisals of the situation and how they saw the way forward. The coalition leaders naturally presented a united front but it was noticeable that Mr De Rossa seemed more preoccupied with the dilemma facing Sinn Fein than the Taoiseach and Tanaiste, who were intent on drawing the maximum of comfort from Monday's speech by the British Prime Minister in the Commons.
It is clear the Government and officials are working flat out on a compromise package to be ready for the Anglo Irish summit expected next week. In the Major speech there is seen to be room for a package which will have the dual aim of moving to all party talks without undue delay and of making this prospect sufficiently attractive to persuade the IRA to call a permanent ceasefire and let Sinn Fein join these talks.
In the meantime Sinn Fein can only have contact with the Government through officials.
Compromise is needed because, as the Tanaiste put it, "the political stand off at the moment is mainly concerned with a disagreement as to whether an election must come before negotiations or negotiations before an election". The British and unionist position is elections first, leading to talks. The Government, SDLP and Sinn Fein position is for all party talks in the course of which an election for a Northern Ireland Assembly could be worked out.
The Government is particularly angry at the murderous end to the ceasefire because the necessary compromise was "significantly advanced" by the intensive talks of recent weeks at all levels and on both sides of the Atlantic. The Government's proposal for "proximity talks" on the lines of the Dayton talks on Bosnia is a key factor. But there may be wishful thinking in this optimism when it meets up with unionist insistence on elections first.
The scenario favoured by the Government is first "an intensive two day conference of all the concerned parties at one convenient venue". This conference would work out agreed arrangements for "an elective process" in Northern Ireland and how this process, in the words of Mr Major, would lead "straight, and straightaway, to negotiations".
The Taoiseach also wants to bring on board John Hume's proposal for referendums North and South which would "end the theology of violence" and thus remove all justification ford IRA violence.
The PD leader, Ms Harney, rather unkindly pointed out chat it was only a few days before that the Taoiseach had referred to elections as "pouring petrol on flames".
The Tanaiste rather noticeably made no reference to the Hume proposals but insisted that there must be "a place at the table for the loyalist parties". He also made a point of detailing "the reluctance of the nationalist parties to begin with an election".
The Fianna Fail leader plugged his own idea of appointing Senator George Mitchell as a pence envoy for which he has already received encouragement from the US ambassador, Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith, who was present in the Visitors' Gallery.
Mr Ahern also favours the "proximity talks" and combined with the peace envoy they could indicate the way forward. But he was clearly uneasy with the proposed "electoral process or an elected body".
Would there be a guarantee that it would lead "immediately" to the three strand talks with those elected being the negotiating teams? And it, as has been hinted, Sinn Fein is going to be excluded from these negotiations because of continuing IRA violence, this, according to Mr Ahern, would "only serve to inflame the situation further by challenging or denying their electoral mandate."
This is a vital issue but the Government leaders refrained from tackling it squarely. They restricted themselves to restating the ban on meetings with Sinn Fein at political and ministerial level unless the cease fire is renewed.
It was understandable that at this early stage, the Government leaders did not want to speculate on Sinn Fein's situation in future elections if there was no ceasefire. Their hope as stated repeatedly in the Dail is that "the IRA clearly state that the cessation of violence is restored" and so allow the Government to "resume full political discussion with Sinn Fein".
It can only be a hope at this stage.
The following is an edited version of the Taoiseach's statement to the Dail yesterday