THE Government is seeking to secure a clear understanding on Sinn Fein's admittance to negotiations following restoration of an IRA ceasefire, the Taoiseach said.

During statements on Northern Ireland, Mr Bruton said that if the IRA called "an unequivocal ceasefire, in words that are believable, and provided there is adherence to both the cessation and the Mitchell Principles, then Sinn Fein should be admitted to the talks".

The restoration of the ceasefire would reopen the road to the inclusive negotiations to which both the Irish and British governments had given their commitment. He appealed for a ceasefire without delay.

There was no justification now nor had there ever been, for paramilitary violence from any quarter. "Violence deepens divisions in an already deeply divided society like Northern Ireland. Only democratic and peaceful means can bring about, and nurture the essential process of healing and reconciliation."

As 1996 drew to a close, challenges and opportunities lay ahead in the New Year. "Let us all redouble our efforts to make 1997 the year in which a new chapter is opened on the way in which all the people of these islands coexist in an environment of peace and tolerance."

The Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, said the British government and the unionists accused Sinn Fein and the IRA of not being serious about the August 1994 ceasefire and wanted stronger guarantees next time. But Sinn Fein and a sizeable section of nationalist opinion attributed the breakdown in considerable part to British bad faith in stalling for 17 months on convening inclusive all party talks.

"On top of the mutual distrust and occasional acts of IRA violence, there has been a virtually sterile and often confrontational talks process at Stormont. After six months, negotiations have got almost nowhere, further undermining faith in democratic politics."

The IRA needed to be clear that when it next restored its ceasefire it would be for good, and not to be broken under any pretext. "When Sinn Fein sign up to the Mitchell Principles, it will have to be in good faith on behalf of their entire movement."

In its fundamentally unsatisfactory reply to Mr John Hume, the British government gave every impression of trying to "temporise and delay". So called intelligence had come up with "the ludicrous and insulting notion" that senior US diplomat working with Senator George Mitchell was having a liaison with a senior republican she had never met.

Wishing the Taoiseach well in his efforts with the British Prime Minister next week, Mr Ahern said the peace process now needed leadership. That must come unmistakably from the Irish and British governments.

Mr Des O'Malley, PD spokesman on foreign affairs, said just restoring the ceasefire was not enough. All the targeting, intelligence gathering, rearming and regrouping by the IRA must stop immediately on the declaration of a ceasefire.

All punishment beatings must stop. It was alarming that in the past two years these had quadrupled, according to figures give this week in the House of Commons.

A total preoccupation with decommissioning weapons was missing the point. It was not necessarily meaningful. "There are many ways short of decommissioning that could be used to demonstrate the sincerity of declaring another ceasefire."

Although the situation was not encouraging, all was "not entirely bleak" about Northern Ireland. One of the most distressing aspects was "the extraordinary flagrant interference with the rights of Catholics" to worship, but it was encouraging to hear the RUC Chief Constable talking about the force being a neutral one.