Varadkar and Martin rule out coalition with Sinn Féin
SINN Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald will be frozen out of any talks to form a government after the next election because the contenders for Taoiseach still view her party as soft on crime.
The Dublin TD has called on Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin to “wake up and smell the coffee” on Sinn Féin in government but both men have said they will not do business with her.
The Taoiseach told the Irish Independent: “Sinn Féin is not a normal party. It is soft on crime. We can see that by the fact that they are opposing the renewal of the Special Criminal Court.”
Mr Varadkar added that a Sinn Féin TD who was recently convicted of engaging in abusive behaviour to a garda had faced no sanction to date.
“Everybody makes mistakes, but surely there has to be some consequences for that,” he said.
Sinn Féin said the TD, Pat Buckley, had apologised and that the party would look at the issue following the conclusion of his case. A sentencing date has been set for November.
Fine Gael has long promoted itself as the party of law and order, leading Mr Varadkar to argue that while he would work with Sinn Féin in the Dáil, he would not form a government with the party.
“Sinn Féin is the second-biggest party in Northern Ireland, so of course we have to work with them and deal with them, just as we do with the DUP, the UUP and Alliance – but there’s a very big difference from forming a government,” said the Taoiseach.
He added that despite Ms McDonald’s public statements about wanting to form a government, there had been no private behind-the-scenes overtures from Sinn Féin.
His comments came as three senior ministers had been forced to deny that Fine Gael would consider a coalition with Sinn Féin. Paschal Donohoe, Simon Harris and Richard Bruton all ruled this out in recent days.
Overtures
However, speaking on RTÉ’s ‘The Week in Politics’, Ms McDonald dismissed the idea that her party was not fit for office as “a load of bunkum” and said Sinn Féin was “not going to sit on the sidelines”.
Mr Martin accused Ms McDonald of making a “flat” speech, devoid of any substance, at her party’s ard fheis in Belfast. He said: “There was a sense of entitlement that somehow Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael owed Sinn Féin power”.
He described the party’s stance as “arrogant” and hit out at it for failing to unequivocally condemn the murders of Paul Quinn and Robert McCartney.