THE Tanaiste renewed his call to Sinn Fein to seek an immediate restoration of the IRA ceasefire.
Mr Spring said it was the only basis on which the 15 per cent of the Northern Ireland electorate which voted for them - after they had campaigned on the slogan "Vote for peace" - could be directly represented at the negotiations.
It was clear, he added, that the recent IRA atrocities in Adare, Manchester and Osnabruck, together with the discovery by the Garda of the Clonaslee bomb factory, had added greatly both to the anger and the doubts of the public about the intentions of the republican movement.
"It will be for the republican movement to find ways of overcoming these extra obstacles and of demonstrating the credibility of any future statement that the ceasefire has been restored," Mr Spring said.
He added that the Government continued to be open to communication with Sinn Fein at official level.
However, the restoration of the IRA ceasefire his not a matter for negotiation, but rather a matter where the most urgent action is required by the leaders of the republican movement themselves."
Asked by the Fianna Fail spokesman on foreign affairs, Mr Ray Burke, if there were any grounds for optimism about an IRA ceasefire, Mr Spring said that any comment he would make would be pure speculation.
He said the Government was very active, in close co operation with the British government, in trying to conclude the procedural phase of the negotiations. He could understand the frustrations expressed from time to time by politicians like Mr Seamus Mallon who wanted to get on with serious and meaningful negotiations.
"We will do everything in our power to make sure that we can get to that stage as quickly as possible."