Democratic Unionist leader the Rev Ian Paisley has said supporters are "happy to be guided" by the party's leadership in the run-up to next month's Assembly election.
He said supporters told him they trusted the party. "They have said: 'We trust you and we know that if you do something we don't understand we are not going to condemn you, we are going to back you'."
Dr Paisley told RTÉ Radio 1's This Week that there was a "craving for peace" but that people wanted a lasting settlement.
"Those who want to see peace also want a peace that will last, not a stop-go/go-stop situation. There will be obstacles and difficulties but we are going to see this one through."
Dr Paisley said the need for lasting peace was the reason why he took what he described as a "strong line" on "Sinn Féin/IRA".
"We must say to the IRA/Sinn Féin, 'Look, we must be persuaded absolutely and we must see tokens encouraging us to believe that you as a party have ceased and are not going to return to any paramilitarism'."
Dr Paisley also claimed Sinn Féin's endorsement of policing had fallen short and referred to a remark by Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams that the party would "put manners" on the PSNI.
"There are too many ifs and buts and teaching people manners and all that sort of thing and I don't think that is helpful."
He suggested Sinn Féin did not deserve any credit for encouraging people to assist police investigating the murder of Newry man Stiofan Loughran, who was stabbed in Derrybeg in the city on February 8th.
"It was one of their own, wasn't it [ he]", Dr Paisley said.
To protests from RTÉ correspondent Tommie Gorman at the remark, he said: "It may not be likeable but I have to be honest with these things because the future of the country lies in the right decision to be taken at this moment."
Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey has accused the DUP of naivety over power-sharing and the peace dividend.
The DUP is believed to think that not committing to power-sharing will give it greater bargaining power over an eventual devolution financial deal.
He called for a united front from the parties on any peace dividend. "The chancellor [ of the exchequer Gordon Brown] is not going to do a deal for one party but he may do a deal for all of us and I think that's the difference between the DUP's approach and ours," he said.
"We both share the same objective, if the objective is to get a deal to go into government. But we dare not risk losing that all-party consensus which is the key strength."
The party's Assembly candidate for South Antrim David Burnside has said the union of the United Kingdom is under threat from inside and outside Northern Ireland.
He spoke as the Scottish Nationalist Party launched a campaign to become the largest party at Holyrood, the Scottish parliament.
"An Assembly at Stormont which brings government closer to the people and halts the blackmailing tactics of Peter Hain and the Northern Ireland Office is a worthy aim for the Ulster Unionist Party," he said.
"A legislative Stormont which is inherently unstable and undemocratic, however, might be used by English MPs as an excuse to weaken the union and could be a dangerous Trojan horse for unionism."
Mr Burnside said that if the SNP became the largest party in Scotland, it could trigger a referendum calling for an end to the union, with Scotland withdrawing. "If that sequence of events unfolds, many English MPs will move further away from supporting the union," he warned.
The UUP candidate also criticised the DUP, which he said had failed to negotiate a better deal at the talks in St Andrews last year. He said the DUP had left the political institutions at Stormont undemocratic and unstable.