Seanad Report: Mr John Dardis (PD), deputy Government leader in the House, claimed Sinn Féin was linked to the Provisional IRA through the statement by a Sinn Féin TD that he was unable to say if he had ever killed anyone.
The TD had been asked in a radio interview earlier this week if he had ever killed anybody, said Mr Dardis. "He said he could not say because, in an ambush situation, you couldn't be sure. That links Sinn Féin to the Provisional IRA."
Some of these issues needed to be debated openly and honestly because there was terrorism in this country, he said. "It still exists, and it needs to be rooted out. They have to decide whether they want the road to democratic politics, once and for all."
Mr Michael Finucane (FG) said members of the Independent Monitoring Commission had indicated to his party leader, Mr Enda Kenny, that Sinn Féin would not co-operate with its investigation into the abduction of Mr Bobby Tohill in Belfast recently.
This was another classic example of the à la carte approach by Sinn Féin. "We can no longer pander to their whims." He welcomed indications that the Taoiseach had apparently signalled a "get tough" policy on such matters.
Meanwhile, accusing the Minister for the Environment of getting his priorities wrong, Ms Kathleen O'Meara (Lab) demanded that Mr Cullen explain why €4.5 million was being spent on a public relations campaign for electronic voting compared with just €160,000 on the registration of voters.
A survey after the last election showed 20 per cent of those questioned had cited non-registration as the reason why they had not voted. This could mean that up to 250,000 people would be unable to cast their ballots in June because they were not on the register.
On European Union issues, Mr Ulick Burke (FG) said it was criminal negligence on the part of the EU that $14 billion earmarked for development purposes in the Third World remained unspent after two decades.
He urged that Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, provide an assurance that the Irish EU presidency would not be allowed to pass without every penny of these monies being utilised.
Also on the EU, there was a definite move under way to undermine the Government's efforts to have Irish recognised as an official EU language, the leader of the House, Ms O'Rourke, said. This was a real chance for conferring great status on the Irish language and enabling it to attain its rightful place.
However, she was aware there were plenty of people, so-called sophisticates, who did not want this to happen, and who were putting forward all sorts of - as they would see it - insurmountable obstacles to the achievement of that status.
Meanwhile, Mr Noel Coonan (FG) said he hoped the refusal of staff of the Equality Authority to relocate to Roscrea, Co Tipperary, was not the beginning of the unravelling of the Government's decentralisation policy.