Sinn Féin has accused Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Progressive Democrats of "political bankruptcy" in its first response to a series of stinging attacks on the party over the weekend.
Dáil leader Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin said Fine Gael and the PDs were trying to establish themselves as the "biggest anti-Sinn Féiners" in what would be a "vain" bid to gain votes at the next general election.
He also hit out at Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who exclusively told the Sunday Independentyesterday that he would lead Fianna Fail into opposition rather than admit Sinn Féin into government.
Mr Ahern told the newspaper that Sinn Féin's "Marxist" policies made it "agents of poverty and disadvantage" and that their presence in government "would lead to a flight of investment".
"In such circumstances, I would lead my party into opposition rather than contemplate coalition with Sinn Féin or an arrangement for their support," Mr Ahern said.
Speaking at the Botanic Gardens in Dublin today, he said the two parties policies "are entirely different in every respect".
Mr Ó Caoláin today said Mr Ahern had a "brass neck" describing Sinn Féin as agents of disadvantage while presiding over a wealthy economy where one-in-seven children live in poverty.
He said the Taoiseach's comments were a panic response to Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny's attempt to portray Fiann Fáil and Sinn Féin as potential coalition partners in a speech to a party conference on Saturday.
Mr Kenny said that at the next general election voters would be offered the choice of a new government or the "old guard of Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin - those rip-off republicans".
Mr Ó Caoláin said the Taoiseach was "rattled by the vacuous speech" evidenced by his use of "the old tactic of the 'red scare'".
Mr Ahern "rushed into the arms of the viciously anti-republican Sunday Independentto deliver his message," the Cavan/Monaghan TD said.
"His attack has nothing to do with our ideology or our policies. It is all about decommissioning some of the political weaponry of Fine Gael and the PDs in advance of a general election," he added.
He also criticised Minister for Justice Michael McDowell who said that IRA army council members who sanctioned murders were now attempting "to pose as statesmen".
He said this was the party whose plan "is to get the balance of power and to use it to control the next government".
"There will be no room in democratic government, north or south, for a party or a movement that is controlled by a secret army," he told the PD's 20th anniversary dinner in Dublin on Saturday
Mr Ó Caoláin said the comments reflected the "political bankruptcy" of the PDs and Fine Gael, whose "main focus has been on scare tactics designed to stem the growth of Sinn Féin".