Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has welcomed the Independent Monitoring Commission's confirmation that the IRA "is continuing to move away" from violence and criminality.
"I hope that the political parties in Northern Ireland will accept this encouraging finding and enter the forthcoming negotiations in Scotland in a constructive way," he said yesterday.
Noting the continuing activity of loyalist paramilitaries, Mr Kenny said both governments must "intensify" efforts to encourage them to follow the democratic path.
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said the blockages preventing progress were Sinn Féin's lack of endorsement so far of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Democratic Unionist Party's unwillingness to share power.
He welcomed the IMC's report while it had also issued an "encouraging" verdict about IRA criminality.
"The report must not be dismissed by the DUP, who increasingly use their own standards and judgments to assess republicans rather than those of the independent commission.
"In fact, the report totally removes the false arguments of the DUP presented to justify not participating in a powersharing Executive with Sinn Féin and the SDLP," he said.
Given that IRA actions and criminality were "at an effective end", Mr Rabbitte said Sinn Féin must now take its seats on the policing board and remove the DUP's excuse for not sharing power. However, the IMC's findings about loyalist paramilitaries causes "grave concern", since "both the UDA and the UVF are up to their necks in paramilitary and criminal behaviour".
