Micheál Martin has called for a special cross-Border commission to be established to examine how Sinn Féin and the IRA dealt with sex abuse cases during the Troubles.

The Fianna Fáil leader has said the allegations of a cover-up demand a wider response.

"We have to look at something extra, beyond the usual judicial or administrative process," he told The Irish Times. "It could be a commission or board made up of people with expertise in dealing with sexual abuse cases and with justice."

He said successive Irish governments had done just that when setting up commissions inquiring into institutional responses to sexual abuse cases, instancing the Laffoy, Ryan and Murphy commissions.

“We needed to create mechanisms to allow brave people come forward,” he said.

Mr Martin suggested a cross-Border commission. "It is clear there was a fair level of abuse going on. There were women and men being victimised with no recourse to justice.

“Critically, many of the abusers were facilitated out of the North into other locations where they could be a danger to women and children,” he said.

Minister of State Simon Harris said Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams should pass on any information he has about alleged sex offenders being shot or exiled by the IRA.

Eoin Ó Broin, a councillor and party strategist, agreed: “Well certainly if (Mr Adams) has it he should do . . . If I had information about any of this at any time during my 20 years as a Sinn Féin activist, I would have brought that forward.”

On Saturday, Mr Adams said that Sinn Féin "has not engaged in any cover up of abuse at any level".

Maíria Cahill, who has said she was raped by an IRA member, issued a statement last night saying she had “raised the abuse issue very publicly, at great personal cost to myself. I am now homeless and in debt.”

She also confirmed she had once been involved with a group called the Republican Network for Unity. She said she had been the national secretary of RNU “for a period of a few hours” in 2010 until she resigned the position and had continued to attend meetings for a few months.

“There was nothing illegal about RNU. It was not involved in any armed action. It was a long time after I left the group, that they were publicly associated with supporting one particular grouping.

“My opposition to violence has been consistent throughout my life, even though some people might find this strange, when I was in Sinn Féin.”