The Minister for Justice has told the Oireachtas Committee on Justice that she stands by her use of the term "scumbags" to describe those involved in the Dublin riots.
"So I've said what I said, and I won't take it back," Helen McEntee said, insisting that she was describing behaviour that was out of the ordinary rather than targetting any group of people.
Independent Senator Lynn Ruane said that "scumbags" labels people not behaviour, adding that the minister's use of it "causes problems for the police".
The label is "classist", Labour's justice spokesperson Aodhán Ó Riordáin said, and called on the minister to apologise, an appeal the minister dismissed.
Ms McEntee also rejected a suggestion that she had accused X, formerly Twitter, of putting out "misleading" information in relation to its response to the riots.
The social media company contradictied the minister's claim that it did not cooperate with gardaí who were responding to the violence.
Ms McEntee insisted that her remarks had reflected what the Garda Commissioner had told her.
She told Independent Senator Sharon Keogan that gardaí responding to the riots had spoken "very clearly" to her and had "highlighted X having not responded and not engaged in taking down certain material".
Ms Keogan asked if X had put out "an incorrect statement" when it claimed to have responded effectively and taken posts down.
"No, I'm not saying that at all," the minister replied, repeating that she "was given information by gardaí" and is awaiting a wider garda report into the day's events.
Ms McEntee also said that she never claimed to have fast-tracked the training of gardaí.
Her remark follows controversy over a social media post by the Fine Gael party that claimed Ms McEntee had "fast-tracked the attestation of trainee gardaí in Templemore".
Ms McEntee said Garda Commssioner Drew Harris had engaged with her before he made the decision, which she supported.
Role of far right
"Often where we see violence occurring, it's not those who are instigating it. It's those who have been encouraged to commit violent crimes," the minister told the committee.
Many of those instigators on the far right "are very aware of what the law is", what language they can get away with and how not "to cross the line".
Senator Ruane expressed concern at "who gets collected within that" far-right grouping, saying she wants to find "an alternative language to give to those men".
"There is no personal situation that forces a person to put something that is on fire into a garda car," Minister McEntee said.
"That's the problem. That's the misunderstanding," Ms Ruane responded. "Because there is. Rationality and reason don't intersect in a moment like that," she said.
Ms Ruane urged that, if the violence is to be stopped, politicians must ask what drives people to it.
New recruits to be deployed next week
Green TD Patrick Costello said that it is up to the Government to point out where changes to legislation are needed.
"It's very difficult for me to give direction to a [Garda] Commissioner if they feel that the powers that they have are sufficient," Ms McEntee replied.
The committee also heard that there have been 637 new entrants to the Garda College so far this year.
Around 150 new recruits will graduate next Friday, as previously announced by the Garda Commissioner, and will be deployed the following day.
MsMcEntee rejected a suggestion from Independent TD Thomas Pringle that the garda response to the Dublin riots "failed", but admitted that there are "lessons that can be learned".
