THE Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, made another strong attack on the IRA within hours of the shooting.
The IRA campaign, he said, was "anti Irish and contrary to the interest of all in Ireland".
Throughout its ceasefire, and even while the Sinn Fein leaders were being received by governments, its military wing kept up its targeting of potential victims and maintained its arsenal of guns, so that killing like this could be undertaken, he said.
Expressing his sympathy to the family of the dead soldier, Mr Bruton called on political parties who were committed to peace to isolate the gunmen by demonstrating a real will to make political compromise.
Deploring and condemning this escalation of violence that had resulted in the death of a British soldier, the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, said it served no purpose and only made the task of restoring the peace process more difficult.
Mr Ahern said the situation called for great restraint and responsibility in the face of such provocation. The action was utterly repudiated by the majority of the Irish people.
The leader of Democratic Left, Mr De Rossa, said the murder would "horrify and outrage the overwhelming majority of Irish people".
The violence of recent weeks was "clearly designed to provoke reaction from loyalist paramilitaries, undo all the progress that has been made over the past two years and to plunge Northern Ireland back over the sectarian precipice."
The PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, said that it was clear from the statement issued by the IRA last weekend that it intended to continue the campaign of terror and violence which it had waged for the past 25 years. The attack was utterly depressing for all those who had invested time and energy in their efforts to bring peace.
