THE Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, says that he is "not recommending" that the SDLP and Sinn Fein accept the British government proposals but he is urging all parties to start negotiations on June 10th.
He says it is for the parties "to make their own decision".
The Tanaiste, Mr Spring, is also refusing to recommend acceptance of the proposals. But he says that the parties in Northern Ireland should consider them.
This reluctance by the Government to lend official weight to the British proposals is probably to avoid charges by the unionist parties that it is interfering in the internal matters of Northern Ireland. Likewise, Ministers do not want to be accused of pushing the two nationalist parties into acceptance of the elected forum which both of them had previously rejected.
The Taoiseach has, however, emphasised the importance that all party negotiations start on June 10th as planned. "We must start the talks as a means of ensuring that people are dealing with problems around the table through dialogue rather than by violent means," he said yesterday in Waterford in an RTE interview.
The Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, has also said that it is for the parties in Northern land to consider the proposals but he took a quite positive attitude towards them. He said that the British prime minister had no choice but to put forward a compromise electoral system.
Fianna Fail fears about the elected forum had not been realised. The concern that the negotiating process might get tied up with the forum has "thankfully not happened".
Mr Ahern said yesterday that he was disappointed that the Framework Document had not been mentioned in the most recent proposals. It seems to have "dropped off everything" since the joint communique of February 28th.
Nationalists in Northern Ireland still had fears of "internal solutions". The Framework Document is "the great saviour for the nationalist people that they will not be isolated again", Mr Ahern said.
The leader of the Progressive Democrats, Ms Mary Harney, has called on the IRA to mark the 80th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising in a few weeks time with a restoration of the ceasefire and a statement committing itself to the peaceful pursuit of its goals.
Speaking at the National College of Industrial Relations she said that "it may be time for Sinn Fein to leave the men of violence behind even if it means a split in the republican movement".
She appealed to the Sinn Fein leadership on the eve of its Ardfheis to spend less time trying to keep the "republican family" together and to show courage by confronting that small group that still thinks violence can succeed.
"Surely it's not so much a split we should be talking about as a division between what's right and wrong. Real leadership means letting go of failed methods," she said.