Tabling the motion in the assembly on Monday, East Londonderry MLA Gregory Campbell accused Dublin of being idle and facilitating the "rebirth" of the IRA.

"We're not asking him to apologise for the actions of the provos, but what we are doing is saying to Mr Kenny, to the Irish Republic's Government, you acted as a midwife at the birth of the provo monster that we had to deal with for 30 years," he said.

DUP leader Mr Robinson insisted there was a "clear connection" between what the IRA did in its infancy and the government in Ireland.

"I think the Irish Republic would do well to look at its role and recognise that it was not the way it should have behaved in those days, and apologise for it because massive death and destruction followed," he said.

Responding South Antrim Sinn Féin MLA Mitchel McLaughlin said unionists were not addressing the full picture.

"If people are going to acknowledge, you know, what was the origins of the trouble, why is there a civil rights history in this state- then we have to clearly examine what was wrong in government that people went out to protest," he said.

"I've yet to hear unionists address that as a contributory factor," he added.

As a government we are hugely conscious of the loss and sense of loss and sense of grieving that remains among people who are victims of the Troubles and their families, and indeed as recently as last week the Taoiseach met with some of the survivors and families of survivors of some of those atrocities.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams also knocked back calls for Dublin to apologise.

He said it was spurious for Mr Robinson to demand a formal acknowledgement that the Republic's authorities should have cracked down on the terror group in its infancy.

"The IRA is not the creation of any Dublin government," said Mr Adams.

"Whatever the Irish Government may have to apologise for - whether it's the heavy gang, whether it's the brutality of prisoners in Portlaoise, whether it's the failure of successive governments attacking the British in the Dublin-Monaghan bombings and other collusion - I don't think it has any apologies to make."

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said the Irish Government worked hard to combat the IRA throughout the Troubles.

"Successive Irish governments worked very hard to crack down, and very successfully crack down, on the IRA and on terrorists organisations," he said.

"One has to look back over the years - there was special legislation introduced, special courts established, members of the IRA were arrested, members of the Garda and the Irish Defence Forces lost their lives in the fight against terrorism and of course over the decades successive Irish governments have worked very hard to bring about a settlement which was eventually encapsulated in the Good Friday Agreement and the agreements which succeeded.

"And the Irish Government now is working with the UK government and with the Northern Ireland Executive to build on those agreements and build a better, shared future for the people of Northern Ireland."

The comments follow the Taoiseach's meeting with the families of the 1976 Kingsmills massacre victims last week.

Unionist politicians and relatives urged for an apology from Mr Kenny for the Irish Government's failures in bringing those responsible for the murders to justice, as a Historical Enquiries Team report revealed all of the suspects were living in the Republic two years after the incident.

Mr Kenny listened to the families' accounts but said he would not apologise for the actions of the IRA.