  We examine the role of the elementary isoscalar pion--nucleon scattering
amplitude in the description of the processes $pp \to pp\pi^0$ and $pp\to
d\pi^+$ at threshold. We argue that the presently used tree level dimension two
approximation used in chiral perturbation theory is insufficient as input by
direct comparison with the $\pi$N scattering data. We also show that a
successful semi--phenomenological boson--exchange model does better in the
description of these data. The influence of the violation of crossing symmetry
in the meson--exchange model has to be studied in more detail. We stress that
further investigations of the process $pp\to d\pi^+$ can pave the way to a
deeper understanding of the pion dominated part of the transition operator.
