Mr Brendan Ryan (Lab) was called on by the Cathaoirleach to withdraw a claim that the former Taoiseach, Mr Haughey, was a crook and a liar.
Speaking in a debate on a Bill to outlaw passports-for-sale schemes, Mr Ryan said a previous speaker, Mr Jim Walsh (FF), had wrongly suggested a moral equivalence between the performance of the government led by Dr Garret FitzGerald and the corruption of the former Fianna Fáil leader.
"I will leave it to the ordinary decent citizens of this country to decide who they feel has moral superiority, Garret FitzGerald or Charles J. Haughey. One was a man of the most impeccable integrity. The other was a crook and a liar."
Mr Walsh demanded that the chair insist on Mr Ryan withdrawing the description "liar and crook" as it was unparliamentary.
Following the Cathaoirleach's intervention, Mr Ryan said: "If you believe that I cannot say that about that particular person, then I withdraw it."