THE attack on the Tanaiste by the deputy leader of the Official Unionist Party, Mr John Taylor, was described by the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, as "not only unhelpful but untrue."
In a strong refutation of Mr Taylor's comments, Mr Bruton said that Mr Taylor had been known to make provocative comments in the past which had been unhelpful to efforts to improve relationships on the island.
Taken together with the unavailability of the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, for a phone call from, or meeting with, Mr Spring, he said, his comments stood in stark contrast to genuine efforts by the Tanaiste and the entire Government to understand the unionist position and discuss their proposals with them.
"At a time when this Government, and indeed the other parties in this House, through the work of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation have gone to great lengths to both understand and accommodate unionist viewpoints, some unionist parties are showing an exaggerated tendency to invent and magnify problems and obstacles, rather than building a genuine cross community partnership for peace," the Taoiseach said.
"Dialogue is always the best course. It is only through face to face talks among all the political parties and the governments that we can develop the necessary trust and confidence to reach agreement about any proposals.
"A refusal to meet face to face with all those who have yet to be convinced in relation to the Unionist Party's proposals displays a lack of confidence in the proposals by their authors, and feeds the suspicion that the proposals could be no more than a delaying tactic."
He urged the unionists to get involved in direct discussions with Sinn Fein. "There is no substitute for sitting across a table from somebody, asking them the hard questions, seeing how they answer, and satisfying yourself as to whether that answer was sincere or not."
The PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, asked the Taoiseach if he would accept that the British government was refusing to put pressure on the unionists to enter into dialogue because of the precarious voting situation in the House of Commons. Mr Bruton replied: "Not necessarily. That remains to be seen.
The Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, said he would reject any unwarranted personal attacks on any member of the House, whether it was the Tanaiste or a member of Fianna Fail. It was unreasonable that anybody defending the peace process should be attacked as being mouthpieces of Sinn Fein or anybody else.
He suggested that the unionist attitude that the proposal for an elected body was of no concern to the Irish Government was a crude attempt to rule it out of the three strand process.
Mr Bruton said the view of the Government was that successful negotiations must take the form of a three strand process. "There is no way that any successful negotiation can be conducted that is not inherently and in every respect part of the three strand approach," he added.
The Taoiseach said there was a proposal that he would meet Mr John Major later this month, but he said there was no meeting planned with the British Prime Minister for next week.
Asked by Ms Harney if he accepted that the target of all party talks by the end of February was "not now realisable, the Taoiseach said that the commencement of talks by that time remained the firm aim of the two governments.
Mr Ahern said that while the "Taoiseach was working on the basis of preparatory talks leading to all party talks the British were doing something else. "You know that, and I know that. What are you going to do about it? There is no good in waiting until February 29th."
Mr Bruton said the Government was working on the basis of agreements entered into with the British government and published on November 28th.
Asked by Ms Harney if he was satisfied that the British government was doing enough to make the aim of all party talks a reality, the Taoiseach said it was very important that Britain should seek in an even handed way to work towards the achievement of that aim.
It should make it clear to the unionist community in particular that its interest was served by entering into dialogue in the form of talks with all the nationalist parties in the North.
Ms Harney asked if the Taoiseach shared her concern at Sinn Fein's refusal to endorse the consent principles in the report of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation, and if he accepted that it damaged the advancement of the peace process.
Mr Bruton said that as somebody who supported the consent principle very strongly he did regret that Sinn Fein was unable to give its agreement to date to it. But it had to be stressed that there were significant advances in other aspects of the report in the position adopted by Sinn Fein. "While they have not come the final mile, they have gone a considerable distance," he added.
