Gerry Adams has criticised Enda Kenny after the taoiseach claimed Sinn Féin was failing in its responsibility to help bring republican law breakers to justice.
The Fine Gael leader, who is set to discuss the Stormont political crisis with Prime Minister David Cameron when the pair meet at the British Irish Association conference in Cambridge later this week, sparked a furious response from Mr Adams when he criticised Sinn Féin.
Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan yesterday attended Government Buildings in Dublin to brief Mr Kenny and other senior government members on the potential fallout of the murders of former Provisional IRA figures Gerard ‘Jock’ Davison and Kevin McGuigan in Belfast.
Speaking afterwards, Mr Kenny said he expected Ms O’Sullivan to continue to keep the government informed of developments into the future.
He also said that following on from last month’s comments by PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton it was clear that while IRA members were no longer involved in terrorist activities they had "drifted into criminality of one sort or another" and he called on Mr Adams to take more decisive action to bring those involved in crime to justice.
"It’s not satisfactory to me that we have a situation where we have evidence of safe houses that were used for sexual abuse by republicans.
"It’s not satisfactory for me merely to be calling for anybody out there with information to come forward, obviously, those who were involved in those years know many names and they should be in contact with those names so that the law of the land can apply and so that in many areas, on the border in particularly, that people are not afraid to open their mouths."
Responding to Mr Kenny’s comments, the Sinn Féin leader said the taoiseach needed to "resist the temptation to play politics" with the murders of Mr Davison and Mr McGuigan, adding: "These are very clearly matters for the criminal justice system and the PSNI should be allowed to pursue their investigations without political interference."
Mr Adams insisted that the IRA had "gone away," saying that Mr Kenny knew “full well” that the paramilitary organisation no longer existed.
