THE Taoiseach yesterday issued a strong appeal to the British government to show generosity both in its treatment of IRA prisoners and its approach to the all party talks.
In an interview, Mr Bruton said it was important that the talks were not log jammed by the issue of arms decommissioning. "The risk is there will be no progress in the talks and no decommissioning. If there is a pragmatic vision, we will get progress in the talks and hopefully decommissioning too.
"Compromises are going to be necessary. Compromises are inherently difficult and compromises are not necessarily facilitated by the maintenance of a running commentary by third parties in a forum," said Mr Bruton. Hence his insistence that the elected forum must not be allowed to "second guess" the negotiators.