Sinn Fein's demand that the Offences against the State Act must be repealed before it will enter a coalition government has been roundly condemned by Fine Gael and the Progressive Democrats.
A party serious about tackling dissident republican or organised crime could not abolish the 1939 legislation, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said,
On Sunday, Sinn Féin Ardfheis delegates insisted the legislation had to be scrapped before the party will enter a coalition government, despite the strong wishes of the party's leadership.
The Act has been the State's main legal weapon in its fight against the IRA, including powers to set up the non-jury Special Criminal Court and jail people for five years on the word of a Garda superintendent.
Responding last night, Mr McDowell said: "It says a lot about a party that the only condition they put on going into government is to repeal the piece of legislation that has been vital in preventing them overthrowing the State.
"If the IRA wants to be a legal organisation they should amend their constitution - not ask Sinn Féin to abolish the legislation which outlaws them," he told The Irish Times.
SF delegates backed the call for the repeal of the Offences against the State Act just moments after they had accepted, reluctantly in many cases, the leadership's call not to block off post-election coalition options.
Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe said his party would reject any attempt by any party to drop the Act: "We will keep it in operation for as long as it is necessary. We will not be dictated to by Sinn Féin who have no credibility on this issue.
"There is a continuing necessity to retain it in the light of the continuing threat from dissident republicans," he said.
"Furthermore, it is necessary because of the ongoing criminality of the IRA.
"There is no evidence that criminality has ceased. There is also the even more disturbing fact that apparent alliances now exist between dissident republicans and criminal gangs in Dublin, as evidenced by the recent pipe bomb attacks," said the Cork South West TD.
"The party that for 30 years supported the bomb and the bullet in Northern Ireland on the basis that they were authorised to do that, the party that denies the legitimacy of the State, is the kind of party that is living in Alice-in-Wonderland.
"I am not surprised," he continued.
