The Taoiseach "was bouncing around like a pink poodle behind the British bulldog" for failing to object to British sanctions against Sinn Féin, Sinn Féin TD for Louth Arthur Morgan told the meeting yesterday of the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body.
Such a remark was highly offensive, Senator Martin Mansergh said. The Taoiseach had done more than anyone to ease the transition of the republican movement to democratic politics. The Irish Government, he said, had no jurisdiction on what was decided at Westminster.
Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan, who was being questioned by Mr Morgan on Britain's "unilateral action" on sanctions, said the only thing pink about the Taoiseach was the colour of his tie. What the Government wanted was for Sinn Féin to move the peace process forward by dealing with paramilitarism and criminality.
Mr Morgan said earlier during the two-day meeting that if the deal on devolved government had been agreed in December, the Northern Bank raid would probably have been solved.
Republicans, Mr Morgan said, agreed with the need for a proper, acceptable and impartial policing service and the working classes in republican and loyalist areas knew this. Criminality could only be addressed as part of an overall deal.
Mr Morgan told the group, backbench members from the Oireachtas and Westminster as well as regional assemblies, that borders generally lent themselves to people becoming involved in criminal activity. If you got rid of the border, you would reduce criminality.
Fianna Fáil TD Jim Glennon said last December's inability of the IRA to agree a formula of words renouncing criminality stymied the deal.
There was no border in Magennis's bar; there was no border in the Short Strand. Prostitution, murder and protection rackets did not require borders.
Sinn Féin, he said, had done a good job in criminalising itself.
Mr Mansergh said republicans insisted they had not lost the war; he hoped they were not about to lose the peace.
The meeting agreed a motion supporting full implementation of the Belfast Agreement, abhorring the murder of Robert McCartney and regretting the damage done to the peace process by criminality.