THE Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, had a meeting with the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, in Dublin yesterday. Senior Fianna Fail TDs and Mr Ahern's special adviser on the North, Dr Martin Manseragh, are also scheduled to meet a Sinn Fein delegation today.
Describing yesterday's discussions as part of the party's strategy of keeping channels open to Sinn Fein, a Fianna Fail spokesman said today's meeting would repeat the party's policy that an IRA ceasefire should be quickly restored to facilitate all-party talks.
Meanwhile, the spokesman said he was quite sure Mr Ahern "would not welcome one member of the Fianna Fail parliamentary party criticising or attacking another member of the party".
His comment followed a statement from Senator Michael O'Kennedy yesterday which said recent remarks by the former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds TD, on the conditions for Sinn Fein entry to all-party talks were inappropriate and unhelpful".
Mr Reynolds had said Sinn Fein should be allowed to the preliminary talks even if the IRA does not reinstate its ceasefire. This, he said, was best for peace.
However, in a statement issued on Seanad notepaper, Senator O'Kennedy said Mr Reynolds, as a former Taoiseach, knew that the difficult negotiations between the British and Irish governments would not be influenced by his opinion.
"There are, of course, adequate opportunities for transmitting his views and opinions in a confidential manner to the leadership of any or all of the political parties on this island who are engaged in the difficult process of creating the conditions for a durable and lasting peace", he said.
Mr Ahern wrote in yesterday's Belfast Telegraph that the political future of the North could only be resolved peacefully and democratically - "an unalterable bottom line that Fianna Fail shares with the genuinely constitutional parties of Northern Ireland".
However, it was "a tragedy" that since March, 1995, decommissioning had been allowed to dominate political discussions and preparations for all-party talks, he wrote.