Violent republicanism is like Dracula, "it would need a stake driven through its heart to end it", according to the Fine Gael deputy, Mr Brendan McGahon (Louth).
In a sharply-worded speech during the special debate on new anti-terrorist legislation, the backbencher hit out at British and Irish governments, the Sinn Fein leadership and republicanism.
He said that "we must see nationalism and not republicanism, and that's part of the problem, the bullshit that so many Irish people were brought up on".
There had been 30 years of appeasement of terrorism, he said, and even the atrocity of Omagh had not succeeded in killing violent republicanism. There was no other way of looking at it.
Politicians, he said, were jumping on the bandwagon following the harrowing events of Omagh. He asked why similar legislation had not been enacted after Enniskillen, Warrenpoint, and all the other atrocities.
"Former justice ministers, Paddy Cooney, Dessie O'Malley, and our leader John Bruton, are the only people I have seen in this assembly with the political balls to address this problem. I hope you have, too," he said to the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue.
"These measures that we have been forced to take are a measure of how much out of control this country has been for 30 years, when death stalked the land, death promoted by Adams and McGuinness, who was the chief-of-staff of the IRA, who are guilty by association of the deaths of hundreds of people. They are now being hailed as some type of international statesmen."
"They are the bastards that have brought Ireland to its knees. They are the people who have resulted in this horrendous tragedy and now they are posing as international statesmen, but they have been sung a song by the British government who are singing a different song to everybody," he said.
In an attack directed at Sinn Fein's sole TD, Mr Caoimhghin O Caolain (Cavan-Monaghan), Mr McGahon said the "organisation to which he belongs have taken the lives of 16 members of the Garda Siochana and seven members of the Army, and he should hold his head in shame".
Mr McGahon said he lived close to the Border and knew people who had lost their lives. "They were murdered by various gangs while we stood idly by. Terrorism has to be confronted, and pious platitudes from people to sit down and rationalise is simply not enough.
"IRA people will come out of their holes and kill again. We must have an acceptance that society has to be protected by government," he added.