Martin McGuinness has defended the appointment of Mary McArdle as a special adviser and said ex-prisoners will not be barred from Stormont appointments, despite recent recommendations by Sammy Wilson.
In his first detailed comments on the issue, the deputy First Minister also rejected criticisms of Sinn Féin's role and behaviour in government by Paul Travers, the brother of Mary Travers, who Ms McArdle helped kill.
"If people think that Mary McArdle was appointed simply to annoy people or cause antagonism, nothing could be further from the truth.
"People who were appointed to positions within Sinn Féin were appointed on merit and because we believe they have an important contribution to make towards our performance in government," he said.
Ms Travers was gunned down in 1984 as she left Mass with her father Tom, a magistrate.
Ms McArdle, who was caught transporting the murder weapon, was recently appointed a special adviser to Caral ní Chuilin, the Culture Minister, who she had met in jail.
Ms Travers' sister Anne and her brother Paul have demanded her removal.
"The heart-rending interviews given by Anne Travers affected people, it had an effect on me.
"Anybody with any compassion in them whatsoever had to be affected but the reality is that we are in a peace process and we have got to bring everybody with us or we are going to leave people behind. I am not for leaving people behind," he said.
He gave examples of former prisoners who work on Sinn Féin's Stormont team.
He pointed out that Leo Green, a senior Sinn Féin official at Stormont and former special adviser to Bairbre de Brun, "had convictions for killing a policeman in Lurgan".
Paul Kavanagh, his own special adviser, married his wife Martina Anderson, a Sinn Féin junior Minister, while they were in jail in England for their part in a bombing campaign.
Mr McGuinness said "both Sammy Wilson and Peter Robinson have been working very positively with people like Paul Kavanagh".
The deputy First Minister said ex-prisoners "who have shown their bona fides in supporting this peace process and standing up to those who wish to plunge us back have a critical role to play".
Peter Robinson has commissioned a report from Sammy Wilson which would have ruled out former prisoners.
Mr McGuinness dismissed this as "an attempt to be seen to do something", urging unionists to "get real here".
He said the report had no real standing and insisted that "it is absolutely up to each minister" who to appoint as advisers.
Mr McGuinness took issue with a letter written by Paul Travers to the Belfast Telegraph in which he praised Mr Wilson's review and said "Sinn Féin has joined our democracy".
He said: "The impression was that he thought we weren't worthy to be in these institutions.
"That is a mistake; we are as much part of these institutions as much as anybody else."
