FORMER JUSTICE MINISTER BLASTS SF PLAN TO HOLD SERIES OF RALLIES
FORMER Justice Minister Alan Shatter last night hit out at Sinn Féins plans for a series of rallies.
Mr Shatter described the move, designed to propel the republican party to power, as having ‘no valid role in our democracy’.
Party president Mary Lou McDonald said the prospect of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael going into government together went against the will of the people, adding that rallies in towns and cities north and south of the border were designed to bring about a ‘conversation about a Government for Change to the people’.
‘Sinn Féin is determined to deliver on the desire of the people for a Government for Change,’ the Dublin Central TD said in a statement yesterday, adding that ‘Sinn Féin will be stepping up engagements with other parties to bring this about in the week ahead.’
The first of the rallies is planned for tomorrow at the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork at 7.30pm.
‘The people voted for change on the 8th of February and Sinn Féin is determined to deliver on the desire of the people for a Government for Change,’ Ms McDonald said.
‘That means a government that will meaningfully address the issues that were central to the election campaign; building homes, cutting rents and freezing them, guaranteeing a pension age of 65, tackling the trolley crisis, addressing climate change and working towards Irish unity.
‘In the coming week, Sinn Féin will be stepping up our engagements with other parties.
‘Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s plan to carve-up political power and to block change is a rejection of what people voted for.
‘Over the coming fortnight, Sinn Féin will host the first of a series of public rallies to bring the conversation about a Government for Change to the people. This will include events in Cork, Dublin, Newry, Cavan and Galway.
‘I look forward to these events and to engaging with those who want real change over the coming period.’
Mr Shatter said the planned Sinn Féin rallies had no place in Irish democracy. ‘I don’t think there is any precedent in Irish politics for a political party that has got 24.5% of the vote holding a series of rallies to demand they are part of a government,’ the former Fine Gael TD said.
‘Over 75% of voters did not support Sinn Féin. Rallies to demand a Sinn Féin-led government have no valid role in our democracy.’
FF TD Thomas Byrne was also critical of the rallies.
‘These Trump-style rallies don’t seem like a real attempt to get to grips with the very real problems that are facing the country,’ said the Fianna Fáil TD for Meath East.
‘They appear to me to be a distraction effort – a distraction from the recent revelations about the activities of the party,’ he added.
‘They are also a distraction from the statements of some of their newly-elected TDs.
‘You don’t win a right to power through rallies – you win it through a majority in Dáil Éireann.’
While Sinn Féin’s unprecedented haul of 37 seats after the election two weeks ago put it between Fine Gael on 35 and Fianna Fáil on 38 seats, talks to form a government have so far been unsuccessful, with both Fianna Fáil and Fine
Gael ruling out working with Sinn Féin because of its past IRA links.
But the Sinn Féin leader has said this refusal to share power was ‘childish’ given that so many new voters had turned to her party.
This week Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said he agreed with the assessment of the head of his former force, the PSNI, that the IRA army council still exists and oversees Sinn Féin.
But this weekend Ms McDonald insisted the IRA no longer exists.
‘No, it does not, so far as I am aware, no, it does not,’ she said in Dundalk.
‘I don’t answer for the IRA, I’m not a spokesperson for the IRA.
‘I’m the leader of Sinn Féin and I’m telling you the war is over.’
Meanwhile the Social Democrats also yesterday ruled out propping up an administration involving Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
‘It isn’t the kind of government we would want and I don’t think it is the type of government people told us they wanted,’ Soc Dems coleader Catherine Murphy said yesterday.
Even so, the Soc Dems, the Green Party and People Before Profit have said they will continue talks to try to reach a deal with Sinn
Féin to form an administration. The Green Party is also talking to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to try and find common ground.