The Fianna Fáil leader claims there was a cover-up within the Republican movement, similar to that in the Catholic Church, of sexual abuse.

The comments come after Liam Adams - the brother of the Sinn Féin President - was today jailed for 16 years for raping his daughter.

Micheál Martin now claims that he has become aware of a number of other alleged cases.

And he says questions have to be answered in relation to the handling and reporting of these.

Sinn Fein say the remarks made are totally untrue. The party deputy leader Mary-Lou McDonald has said "The decision by Michael Martin to try this traumatic case to try and score political points is absolutely disgraceful".

“There is no comparison between the approaches by Gerry Adams in this case and that of the Catholic Church in dealing with abuse allegations" she added in a statement.