a good sign but probably won't mean much. The main IRA group has observed a cease-fire for quite some time, it's splinter factions that have carried out all recent acts of terrorism, and I doubt they'll observe this.
While the provisionals have been on an official ceasefire for some time now, actions of criminality (moreso than terrorism, though it's a grey area) continued in the form of punishment beatings, violent threats etc. Indeed relatively recent activities such as the Northern Bank robbery held back developments in this process as much as anything else. Thus the importance of the line: "Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever."
As for the other republican paramilitary groups, none of them have anything like the capacity of the provisionals, the reaction to the Omagh bombing and the current world attitudes towards terrorist organisations generally have left them in very weak positions.
A Paisley led government certainly isn't something I'd relish though. I don't get how anyone takes that lunatic seriously. If I lived in N. Ireland, I'd be as hardline unionist as they come, but would probably also being secretely hoping that an IRA splinter faction shuts him up for good.
Certainly a unique perspective.