Updated 3.50pm
MICHEÁL MARTIN WAS labelled “a gurrier” by a Sinn Féin TD as the Dáil discussed the findings of an intelligence review which has determined that the Provisional IRA still exists.
The Fianna Fáil leader told the Dáil that the British intelligence report had reached a stark conclusion in assessing the PIRA Army Council still exists and that Provisionals believe it controls Sinn Féin.
Addressing the Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Martin said there needed to be assurances that the proceeds of organised crime being carried out by “alleged individual Provo republicans” are not finding their way into the political project of Sinn Féin.
Off mic, Sinn Féin TD Padraig MacLochlainn was heard saying:
That’s shameful, that’s shameful. You’re a gurrier, you’re a political gurrier.
Martin referred to remark a short time later, saying he’d just been called “a gurrier” by MacLochlainn who, in the Dáil record, is recorded as responding:
That is because he is. He is the prime gurrier in these Houses… Deputy Martin is more hardline than MI5 and the DUP. He is worse than the DUP.
Martin said it was the type of “intimidation that people engage in when they’re challenged”.
Kenny later condemned the remarks, saying:
Now I have differences of opinion with you on many matters, but I’ve never descended to the level of what you’ve just been called from the far side.
MacLochlainn was heard laughing loudly in the chamber as the Taoiseach spoke.
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