The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, defended the Government's decision to hold a referendum on citizenship and launched a scathing attack on Sinn Féin, saying true republicanism does not speak in a "muffled voice through a balaclava."
Stepping up the PDs recent criticism of republicans and Sinn Féin Mr McDowell said "true republicans don't break drug-addicts legs with baseball bats; True republicans do not finance their political campaigns by organising major crime; True republicans do not shoot car thieves in their knees and ankles: True republicans could not plant bombs to kill civilians at Enniskillen, at Omagh, at the Le Mon hotel, or at Manchester, Birmingham and Canary Wharf."
And in a thinly veiled attack on Sinn Fein leader Mr Gerry Adams, Mr McDowell said "no true republican could publicly lie and lie again about his involvement with a movement which brought about all of those matters."
In his address to the Progressive Democrats annual conference in Killarney today, Mr McDowell defended his tough line on bogus asylum seekers saying there would be serious "moral, social and economic implications" had he not tightened restrictions on asylum applications.
"That is why I make no apology to anyone for making our immigration and asylum seeking laws both workable and effective. Not to do so would be to play into the hands of extremists and bigots," he said.
He told delegates that granting automatic citizenship to anyone born in Ireland is "not sustainable", especially given that the freedom of travel within the
EU and the cost to the Exchequer which he estimated at €340 million in 2003.
"There is nothing wrong, or strange or ungenerous in Ireland having a perfectly conventional citizenship law by international standards that excludes automatic citizenship to children born to mothers who opt to spend a few days here at the end of their pregnancy, whether as tourists or asylum seekers, " Mr McDowell said.
He said the greatest civic moral duty of Irish citizens is to "emphatically reclaim the substance of Republicanism, as the birthright and property of the great majority, and not as the flag of convenience for the sick double standards of Provisionalism."
"The tricolour is our National flag - the symbol of the Republic which we serve. That Republic has one army, one police, one constitution. It's a democracy - for democrats. It has no room for violence, criminality and terror. The sooner that that message sinks home, the sooner that the real work and vocation of all genuine republicans on this island can be brought," he added.