Sinn Féin tonight accused Fine Gael of being blinded by their anti-republican prejudice and of previously bungling the Northern Ireland peace process.
The party was speaking on a joint Government/Fine Gael Dail motion which has called on Sinn Féin and the IRA to abandon all violence and fully embrace democracy.
But Cavan/Monaghan TD Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said he would not refute every false allegation thrown around the parliament and around the media in recent days.
Referring to Fine Gael, he said: "They are about party politics in this State. Their ham-fisted approach reflects the bungling of their previous leadership in the peace process.
"It's said that so many in this House are so blinded by their anti-republican prejudice that they cannot acknowledge or understand the enormity of what the IRA was on the point of delivering in December."
The Sinn Féin leader in the Dáil accused the Irish and British governments of allowing the power sharing agenda to be set by rejectionist unionism, creating the current impasse.
He insisted Sinn Fein was determined to address all the outstanding issues "including unionist reluctance to share power with nationalists and the issue of arms and armed groups".
The Sinn Fein amendment to the motion said the party rejected criminality in all its forms but made no reference to the early release of the killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe - the key issue which secured Government support for the motion.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said anyone wishing to participate in power sharing cannot do so while allied to paramilitaries.
He said the IRA had refused to commit itself to ending all violence during during last December's failed talks. "That simple proposition was too much to be swallowed," he said.
The motion was passed by overwhelming majority in the Dáil this evening ahead of tomorrow's publication of the Independent Monitoring Commission's report which will say the IRA was behind the Northern Bank robbery.