Lord Laird of Artigarvan has claimed the Republic's media are infiltrated by the IRA and has demanded that two senior RTE officials explain their "extreme republican backgrounds". He is threatening to name these people in the House of Lords.

Speaking under parliamentary privilege in the Lords, he has already made claims regarding former Bank of Scotland chairman Phil Flynn and former journalist Frank Connolly.

In an interview with the Sunday Tribune, Lord Laird accused Bertie Ahern of "gross negligence" in allegedly allowing the Republic to be extensively infiltrated by the Provisional IRA. He refused to name the TDs and guards who he said provided the information.

He also claimed British government ministers disliked their Irish counterparts.

"Nobody in Westminster likes the Irish government, although they indulge them.

Dublin is like the spoilt child everybody gives into but nobody can stand." He claimed the Republic was a "corrupt, hypocritical state" which discriminated against Protestants while pretending to be pluralist and inclusive.

"Everything is swept under the carpet. Mention the Angelus on RTE and they say 'Ach don't worry about that'. Ask why only 13 of 12,500 guards are Protestants and they say 'Ach don't worry about that'.

They've some gall coming to Belfast to lecture us on how our police must have an equal Catholic-Protestant balance."

He accused the government of "sanctimonious claptrap" on its position on equality in the North.

Laird, who has family roots in Raphoe, Co Donegal, said that while he liked many southerners, they were generally "more two-faced" than northerners. He defended his Lords' statements, which many see as reckless.

"I've taken extreme measures because we're in extreme times. Bank notes were burning in gardens in Cork.

The IRA was buying a bank in Bulgaria, for goodness sake.

The threat of this new whitecollar terrorism is huge and the southern state isn't up to dealing with it."

RTE insiders dismiss his accusations as nonsense and accuse him of "condemnation by postcode". An RTE spokesman said: "We simply cannot identify anyone in RTE Lord Laird could possibly be talking about."

Lord Laird denied he was acting irresponsibly and claimed to be "sifting through evidence against individuals", which he declined to disclose.

"I'll name them when I'm ready. The dogs on the Dublin streets know who they are and they know who they are."

He claimed RTE's coverage of the outing of Sinn Fein administrator and British spy Denis Donaldson, was tame.

RTE was "in awe every time P O'Neill opened his mouth, yet it never misses an opportunity to take a swipe at Michael McDowell".