A senior Sinn Féin TD has said that he absolutely believes Máiría Cahill was a victim of abuse, and says the party leadership agrees.
Eoin Ó Broin's remarks came after vice president Michelle O'Neill was asked twice in an interview last week if she believed Ms Cahill's account of the alleged abuse she said she suffered by an alleged IRA member and her claims of a cover-up by the Republican movement.
The party leader for Northern Ireland declined to state clearly whether she believed Ms Cahill, and was heavily criticised for her answer by political opponents.
In Dublin on Friday Mr Ó Broin said he felt the media had made more of the story than necessary, and Ms O'Neill believed Ms Cahill's claims.
"I absolutely believe Máiría Cahill was a victim of abuse and I've never said anything different.
"I have to say, I think [Sinn Féin president] Mary Lou [McDonald]'s unreserved apology was important and I echo it here today," he said.
"I've read the full interview and when you read the full interview I don't think there's a difference between Michelle and Mary Lou.
"I don't think Michelle would disagree with either of our statements, I think some people in the media are making more of the interview than that's in it, the party absolutely believe and accept that Máiría Cahill is a victim of abuse."
Earlier this month, Police Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire delivered a scathing critique into police failings, and also noted that Sinn Féin did not act when Ms Cahill originally made her allegations to senior party figures in 1997, instead waiting for three years to suspend her alleged attacker.
The Sinn Féin leader unreservedly apologised to Ms Cahill in the wake of the probe.
She said Sinn Féin now had "robust procedures in place" for mandatory reporting of abuse allegations and that she regretted that such procedures were not in place at the time Ms Cahill made her allegations.
But Ms Cahill, an SDLP councillor, criticised Ms McDonald's statement, saying she did not go far enough.
Ms Cahill has claimed Sinn Féin covered up her allegations against one of its members.
Ms Cahill, a great-niece of prominent Belfast republican Joe Cahill, claimed she was sexually abused as a 16-year-old by alleged IRA member Martin Morris.
Mr Morris, who denied all wrongdoing, was later acquitted of rape when the case against him collapsed.
Ms Cahill had alleged the republican movement's response to her claims was to subject her to an IRA interrogation.
She also accused Sinn Féin of engaging in a cover-up and waging a campaign to question her integrity ever since she waived her right to anonymity.
