IT’S TIME A WOMAN RAN THE COUNTRY

EXCLUSIVE: HER MOST REVEALING INTERVIEW

BLOCKING Sinn Féin from being part of the next government is ‘not a sustainable position’ as the country reaches its 105th day under a caretaker government.

That’s the verdict of Mary Lou McDonald in an exclusive wide-ranging interview with the Irish Daily Mail, in which the Sinn Féin president discusses her desire to be Taoiseach, her relationship with Leo Varadkar, women in politics, the Leaving Cert debacle and the chaos in childcare.

As the country continues to be led by a caretaker government, including a number of unelected Cabinet ministers, which has been unable to pass legislation since the end of March, Ms McDonald says her party stands ready to break the political impasse.

Ms McDonald has repeated her party’s willingness to come to the negotiation table as serious doubts emerge about the ability to ratify any programme for government between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party.

‘I think the blanket refusal to engage, to acknowledge or to speak to us, obviously keeps everybody back. That’s not a healthy or a democratic thing to do,’ she says.

The mandate provided by the electorate has to be embraced by politicians, she says, adding that excluding a party that received almost a quarter of first-preference votes (24.5%) is ‘indefensible’.

Ms McDonald concedes the election results are ‘messy’ but says that means all solutions should be considered. She says: ‘I was very clear on our part before the election, during it and afterwards that we will speak to everybody, because I think that’s the thing that adults do. I think it’s the democratic and the fair thing to do.’

She describes the decision by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to ‘keep us at arm’s length and to keep us out of government’ as the only thing that binds them together.

‘I mean, it’s a wrong position. It’s also not a sustainable position,’ says Ms McDonald.