Stinging attack on SF by McDowell

The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has strongly criticised Sinn Féin for seeking to take the moral high ground on political corruption at a time when he claims the party is still closely associated with sinister criminal elements.

"It ill-beholds Sinn Féin to point the finger at anybody when they have a huge unresolved issue in relation to the close connection of the IRA and organised crime in Ireland," he told Today FM's Last Word programme yesterday.

In response Sinn Féin said last night the Minister was "joining a long list of people" who had engaged in recent years in "black propaganda" against the party.

A spokesman said Sinn Féin was the most scrutinised political party in Ireland and nothing "untoward" had been uncovered in relation to how it raises or spends its funds.

Mr McDowell told Last Word presenter Mr Matt Cooper that he was "certain" people who had benefited from the Good Friday Agreement are now engaged in criminal activity. "There is a close connection between Sinn Féin and the IRA and I have no doubt that senior figures in the IRA are at the moment, and have been for many years, engaging in criminal activities to fund the activities of the republican organisation."

Asked if he believed the Sinn Féin electoral machine was financially benefiting from such criminality he said: "I don't believe there are strict Chinese walls between IRA money and Sinn Féin money and I believe it would be naive for anybody to think that there are.

"I strongly reject the implicit suggestion in some of the Sinn Féin rhetoric that their party is in some way morally clean. It isn't. It is directly associated with very, very sinister elements in Irish society."

"One of the things that I find most difficult to take is the Sinn Féin party talking about corruption in political life and pointing the finger at others and they have people very much closer to home about whom they hope the media, and people like me, will remain silent, I certainly won't."