FIANNA Fail's approach on Northern Ireland is "dangerously one sided" and "carries risks for this State", according to the Government Whip and Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr Jim Higgins.
"It appears that Fianna Fail is becoming the willing victim of a reverse takeover by militant republicanism," Mr Higgins said. He was responding to comments in a Sunday Business Post interview with the Fianna Fail frontbencher, Ms Moire Geoghegan Quinn.
Ms Geoghegan Quinn criticised the Taoiseach's handling of the peace process and said he had not "exerted the sort of pressure on John Major that was needed".
Mr Higgins said Ms Geoghegan Quinn's interview was "further evidence that her party is being harnessed to a dangerously one sided agenda".
"Moire Geoghegan Quinn's approach, like that of her party leader, Bertie Ahern, in his seriously misjudged Arbour Hill speech, carries risks for this State.
"Fianna Fail under its current leadership is locked in the past, unable to see that the peace process has now reached a delicate and vital stage, which requires careful balance," Mr Higgins said in a statement.
Labour and Fianna Fail spokesmen declined to comment on Ms Geoghegan Quinn's assertion that it would be "exceedingly difficult" for Fianna Fail to enter coalition with a Labour Party led by Mr Dick Spring.