A blind eye had been turned to the ongoing criminal activity of the IRA for too long, the Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, told the Dáil last night.
"This was so as long that they thought they could do as they pleased without shouting stop," he added. "Well, tonight, Fine Gael is shouting 'stop' and I hope the other parties in the House will join us in doing so."
Mr Kenny, who was introducing a Fine Gael Private Member's motion, said that his party's position relating to the peace process, unlike some others, had been consistent throughout. "In government and in opposition, in public and in private, we have never played politics with the process," he added.
Mr Kenny said he respected the Sinn Féin electoral mandate. "But I remind them that I, too, have a mandate on behalf of the Fine Gael party," he said.
"Sinn Féin has become accustomed to their mandate being disproportionately heard because it comes to us through a megaphone at the end of a gun. This must stop. No democratic party has a mandate for killing, for robbery, for racketeering, for maiming or for stalking. My mandate is to stand up for the truth, to defend and strengthen the institutions of this State and to allow democratic politics to build a country of peace and pride."
Mr Kenny said the debate gave an opportunity to send a clear message to the IRA and to their political representatives in the Dáil that that type of behaviour would not be tolerated.
"The republican movement must end all their illegal activities and complete the process of decommissioning," he added. "The urgency of completing this transformation has been highlighted by recent events and statements which have provided an alarming insight into the republican mindset and their conception of what their commitment to exclusively peaceful and democratic [ methods] means."
The Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said it was arguable that the governments, and the Republic's Government in particular, had aided a process of propaganda, especially in the way in which other parties in the North had been excluded from the process.
"I find it unconscionable that parties like the SDLP in particular, and the UUP, should be expected to sign on to a comprehensive solution sight unseen".
"There would be no peace process, and no evidence of workable institutions in Northern Ireland, without the work of people like Mark Durkan and David Trimble. The exclusion from the negotiations of parties and individuals who have an enormous contribution to make will come to be seen as one of the reasons why the process has hit so many obstacles in recent times."
Mr Rabbitte accused Sinn Féin of being "under the misapprehension that their party has grown in support solely because of the genius of their leadership".
In fact, he added, the democratic parties had knowingly facilitated the emergence of Sinn Féin as a representative force because it seemed the best way to copper-fasten the peace process.
"If the leadership of the republican movement reflects for a while, they will surely understand why the democratic parties cannot indefinitely acquiesce in Sinn Féin failing to conclude the peace process while maintaining a stranglehold over disadvantaged communities through undemocratic means."
