Fine Gael parliamentary chairman Charlie Flanagan dismissed accusations from Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness that his party is conducting a “black propaganda” campaign against his presidential candidacy.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme, Mr Flanagan said it wasn't propaganda to tell the truth.
"I don't believe it's propaganda of any description, either black or green. It's just the plain terrifying truth of what happened in this jurisdiction over the years. They did bomb Enniskillen. They did murder seven gardaí in this State," he said.
"I'd like an apology to the Irish people from Martin McGuinness for Enniskillen, for the vicious attacks in the Republic and in the North and an apology, for example, for the murder of Michael Clerkin in 1976 in my own constituency. I saw the crying children and the grieving families in Co Monaghan. It was a chilling experience that I will bring to my grave. And that is what Sinn Féin's armed wing was doing," he said.
Mr Flanagan dismissed suggestions that his party had a deliberate strategy of making the presidential campaign a dirty election.
"It is not part of a deliberate strategy. We have a duty to raise these issues and ask these questions. People need to know the character and past of the candidates. How can Pearse Doherty defend Martin McGuinness's dark past? Gay Byrne once said on interviewing senior IRA chiefs like Adams and McGuinness: they lie all the time. They are trained to lie. And that's what I hear."
On the same programme, Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said the accusations levelled at Martin McGuinness were "without foundation or merit".
"I didn't think senior Government ministers would go on national radio and give interviews to newspapers and make attacks without foundation. I think it's a sign of desperation and political naïveté on behalf of the Government," he said.
He accused Mr Flanagan of being "ill-informed", saying the IRA had apologised to people for the lives that were lost and injuries sustained during the Troubles and had ensured those days would not be returned to.
"The fact is Gay Mitchell is threatened by the fact that a presidential candidate would accept one tenth of the salary for the role. He doesn't understand that Martin McGuinness would live on less than €30,000. This is a very important issue for people," he said.
Commenting on the Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan's remark yesterday that corporate investment would dwindle if Mr McGuinness became president, Mr Doherty said Mr McGuinness had attracted 150 companies to the North in recent years.
"Martin McGuinness can walk into the boardrooms of multinationals like HBO, Citibank, Universal and the New York Stock Exchange. These are just some of the companies that have invested in the North in recent years," he said. "He has a relationship with them on the international stage. They don't have to read a biography to find out who he is. They know who he is."