THE IRA has indicated that a new ceasefire can be called if certain conditions are met by the British government.
In an interview in this week's edition of An Phoblacht/Republican News, a "spokesperson" expressed "hope" for a restoration of the ceasefire.
He also described the shooting of two gardai in Adare last month, including the killing of Det Garda Jerry McCabe, as "wrong" and "damaging to our struggle".
Meanwhile, the British government must treat the Northern conflict as a political problem, not a security question, he said.
Asked if there was "no hope" of a restoration of the IRA cease fire, he outlined a number of criteria which it appears must be met first.
These include the need for "good faith engagement involving real all party negotiations, with no preconditions and no predetermined outcome".
"All party negotiations cannot be allowed to become a decommissioning conference. Negotiations need to deal with the fundamentals of the conflict. Blocks on that road need to be removed. A time frame is essential," he added.
Such a time frame for negotiations was a well tried and tested method of introducing momentum into any peace process and "everything, including constitutional change, has to be on the table".
The interview ruled out any split in the IRA, saying that reports to this effect were sometimes fed directly into the media by British intelligence or RUC sources, "which the media adopt without question". Sometimes individuals "with their own axe to grind" were behind the speculation and on some occasions "it's just journalists making up sensationalist stories".
"So, to be clear, there is no question of a split within the IRA. Our volunteers are thinking activists who have voiced and will continue to voice their individual thoughts on the political situation up the channels of command. This is sought after and welcomed."
In the IRA's opinion, the situation was not intractable. "Armed struggle is there in the absence of a viable democratic alternative route to national democracy in Ireland," he said.
The challenge of all parties was to find a way to lasting peace with justice. "We remain prepared to rise to that challenge," the spokesman concluded.