The following is an edited version of the statement by the Minister for Social Welfare to the Dail yesterday
IT was now more important than ever that the peace process be intensified, said Mr Proinsias De Rossa.
The British prime ministers statement in the House of Commons on Monday offered reassurance that the process would continue and that the two governments could agree on how to move things forward, said the Minister for Social Welfare.
"The clear indication from Mr Major that an electoral process was just one option he was considering and that he was prepared to consider alternative proposals from others, including the Irish Government, was particularly encouraging."
The past few weeks had been difficult for relations between the two governments but "the indisputable fact is that there can be no solution to the problems of Northern Ireland without the cooperation of the two governments".
The London bomb, said the Democratic Left leader, was a cynical and vicious act designed to cause death and destruction.
The Sinn Fein leaders appeared shocked by it but that raised more questions than it answered. "What of authority within Sinn Fein, and what of the future of Sinn Fein?" he asked.
Within the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation and elsewhere the Government dealt circumspectly with the issues the republican tradition found most difficult the principles of consent and of democratic endorsement of whatever settlement for Northern Ireland might emerge. "I have to say that our collective trust has taken a hammering."
The political aspect of the peace process had been disrupted by a planned operation of the IRA not by the British government or the unionists.
Regarding the implied culpability of the British government in creating the conditions leading to the bombing, Mr De Rossa said "There can be no moral equivalence between the conduct of politics no matter how tedious, no matter how frustrating and acts of terrorism. It is the IRA and the IRA alone which has devalued the currency of Sinn Fein and of republicans in the peace process."
The big issue now was whether the republican movement the IRA and Sinn Fein would recommit themselves to a complete cessation of violence. No sovereign Irish government had ever dealt with the representatives of private armies as if they were statesmen. "Sinn Fein is now confronted with the practical, though not the moral, dilemma of deciding whether they are merely proxies for the IRA or are a genuinely political movement."
A political solution and permanent peace would require more flexibility and a willingness to compromise.