THE British government has once again ignored the Irish Government who are handicapped by growing signs of disunity in their own ranks" and by the Taoiseach's delay in showing strong leader ship, the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, has claimed.
The Government must now demand that the British government and all parties accept the Mitchell report in full. It must also insist that the British government honour its commitment of November 28th to convene all party talks by the end of next month.
Following a meeting on: Northern Ireland of his Front Bench yesterday, Mr Ahern also committed his party to supporting any "political decision" Northern nationalists now decide to take.
Meanwhile, it was "absolutely tragic" that the favourable response to the Mitchell report was dashed within hours by Mr Major's statement.
"His statement constituted .... a grave discourtesy to Senator Mitchell and his body and pre empted calm and careful consideration of his findings which have been completely overshadowed," he added.
Nationalist Ireland was intensely angry that Mr Major had instantly brushed aside the report, he said. The Prime Minister had, in effect, refused to accept it, as was intended, as a basis for proceeding immediately with all party talks.
"The Prime Minister posed an absolutely false dichotomy between the IRA acceptance of the Washington 3 precondition and the assembly as the only two possible routes to all party talks. The proper course of action for the two governments and all other parties was to accept the Mitchell report in full and proceed to organise all party talks," Mr Ahern said.
Mr Major had "invoked opinion polls" to support his argument but these were notoriously unreliable when it came to Northern Ireland, he said. He was "quite certain that if an opinion poll were held this morning, there would be overwhelming public support in Ireland for acceptance of the Mitchell report".
He asked why the Government was caught unawares. Were the Taoiseach and Government "properly consulted" by Mr Major? Where was the co ordinated response of the two governments to the report? And why was the Government caught unawares by the force of Mr Major's commitment to an elected body?
"I accept the Tanaiste's account given in the Dail. But what did the Taoiseach agree with John Major on Tuesday night? ... I want full clarification from the Taoiseach," he said.