POLITICAL outrage at the bombings has echoed across all parties in Leinster House, with fresh demands on the IRA to abandon its campaign of violence.
Describing the attack as "a truly appalling event", the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, said it represented a politically bankrupt strategy."Those who engage in these actions do not put themselves at risk of physical harm. They put others at risk. This cowardly strategy of sneaky violence by the IRA has completely failed," he added.
"This latest attack is to be strongly condemned. I hope it will be the last such attack we will see, that at last sense will surface within the republican movement and that there will be a ceasefire so that there can be all inclusive talks," he said.
According to the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, those behind the attacks and threats were "living in cloud cuckoo, land" if they believed their campaign would bring them nearer to a solution. Acts like this only made matters more difficult, he added.
Expressing anger at news of the bombs, Mr Spring said this was an extremely disappointing development, at a time when everyone, including the two governments, had been working to bring about an atmosphere for dialogue and negotiations in the talks process.
The attacks were "totally contrary to the concept of engaging in meaningful negotiations, free from a background of violence.
"We don't have any indications or warnings that this is the beginning of a campaign of terror prior to the British general election. I hope it is not. If that is the signal they are sending, they are not telling us anything new. We know that they have not gone away. We know they are there," Mr Spring said.
Raising the bombings in the Dail, the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, said: "These criminal acts have to be repudiated in the strongest terms". They were politically futile and only delayed any possibility of the commencement of inclusive talks, he added.
The leader of the Progressive Democrats, Ms Mary Harney, said it was probably too much to expect the IRA to leave its evil ways behind during the British general election.
"But we must make it clear to Sinn Fein and the IRA that they will not bomb their way to the talks table. The Taoiseach said that people at the highest level in the United States government are becoming impatient with the IRA. Most people on this island are completely fed up with the IRA," Ms Harney added.