The Government must force Sinn Féin to become a true democratic party and not tolerate its deception any longer, Fine Gael's leader said last night.
Enda Kenny told the Parnell Summer School in Co Wicklow that the coalition partners of Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats must not be fooled by Sinn Féin.
Enda Kenny
Speaking of the IRA's recent pledge to dump arms and embrace politics, he told Sinn Féin: "It's real democracy because it's democracy not just in word, but in deed."
"When we go electioneering, the vast majority of us load up our cars with posters and leaflets - not balaclavas, stun guns, fake Garda uniforms or canisters of CS gas. We play by the rules. And as committed democrats, we play for keeps."
"The two parties may tolerate Sinn Féin bullying, they may put up with Sinn Féin's deceit and abject insincerity," he said.
Mr Kenny accused Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams of holding Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to ransom on several issues.
He recalled the 1998 Belfast Agreement and the IRA's promise to decommission all arms but said people still had to wait seven years for a statement declaring an end to the terror group's 36-year armed campaign.
"It's time Sinn Fein were told, 'The more you get, the less you give, the more you want. So, get over yourselves'," he said.
"Play your part in giving the people of this island what they voted for. They've had seven years of pious choreography, seven years of sweating over semantics, seven years of torture, along with racketeering, drug-dealing, money-laundering, kidnapping, punishment beatings and bank robberies."
The Mayo TD criticised what he claimed were "secret deals" done between the Government and Sinn Féin in the past, including the offer to release the IRA killers of Det Gda Jerry McCabe before the aborted Northern Ireland power-sharing deal last December.
PA