The Minister for Justice Michael McDowell claimed it was his duty to tell the public about the Executive Director of the CPI Frank Connolly's alleged role in an IRA plot to sell bombing information to Farc rebels in Colombia.
The Centre for Public Inquiry (CPI) has the capacity to undermine the authority of the State if it falls into subversive hands, Mr McDowell warned TDs in the Dail this evening.
"Undoubtedly, the Centre for Public Inquiry ... is one which has, in subversive hands, the capacity to gravely undermine the authority of the state," he said.
"I regard it as my clear and unequivocal duty to bring into the public domain the central role played in that body by a person, who the gardai are satisfied, participated in an important way in the series of visits to Colombia designed to exchange know-how in terrorism and explosives for massive amounts of cash apparently to be spent on distorting our democratic process," he added.
The US backers pulled funding from the CPI last week after Mr McDowell's allegations about Mr Connolly surfaced in a written reply to a Dail question.
Earlier, The Taoiseach Mr Ahern fielded a wave of criticism from Opposition benches and said the Government had been kept fully informed of Mr McDowell's actions throughout.
He said he was aware of Mr McDowell's leak of the alleged bogus application for a passport by Mr Connolly to the Irish Independent.Mr McDowell had his "full support" and that he had dealt with the issue "in a proper way", Mr Ahern said.
Green Party TD Ciaran Cuffe and Sinn Fein's Aengus O Snodaigh both called for the minister's resignation on the issue.
Additional reporting: PA