Fianna Fáil TD Dr Martin Mansergh warned Sinn Féin against moralising without examining its past.
He was speaking during a debate on the Control of Exports Bill 2007, regulating trade in military products and goods with civil and military applications.
"I wish spokespersons for Sinn Féin would not moralise from a height without adopting a self-critical attitude to some of the activities they have defended and stood over in the past."
The Tipperary South TD and key player in the Northern Ireland peace process as adviser to a number of Fianna Fáil taoisigh was responding to remarks made by Aengus Ó Snodaigh (SF, Dublin South Central).
Mr Ó Snodaigh said that for far too long hypocrisy prevailed in the House, with those lecturing republicans, who were involved in a war, allowing an arms trade to be carried out with the Government's support.
"I will not take lectures or snide comments from Government deputies or Ministers when one reads about an Irish-registered company brokering deals during the civil war in Liberia, or notes that Irish companies make parts for Apache attack helicopters used to attack populations in the Gaza Strip and the like."
Mr Ó Snodaigh said he commended Amnesty International and Afri in particular.
The two groups, he said, "were to the fore in highlighting the contradictions which existed in the Government's approach where, on the one hand, it was said there was no arms trade here, and, on the other, the Government was saying it attached priority to human rights in terms of Ireland's foreign policy".
Dr Mansergh said that only Dáil Éireann had the right to declare war, and therefore, there was no war over the past 30 years.
"It is all very well to moralise about other people exporting arms, but are we certain that the IRA did not export expertise in bomb-making and other guerilla warfare-terrorists tactics and techniques?
"Many questions are unanswered about places such as Colombia, where three members of, let us call it, the republican movement - although I do not believe there was very much republican about these activities - were found in Colombia in Farc-led territory where the human rights' abuses are absolutely appalling."
