SF ‘could hold balance of power’

SINN FÉIN could hold the balance of power after the next general election, admits Fianna Fáil backbench TD Conor Lenihan.

The question now, he said, was in what circumstances the party would be admitted to power.

Mr Lenihan, tipped to win a junior ministerial portfolio in Bertie Ahern’s imminent Cabinet reshuffle, added that the period of “scaremongering about Sinn Féin is over. I don’t think it’s positive for Fianna Fáil or any other establishment-minded parties to be seen, symbolically or otherwise, to be having a go at Sinn Féin; I think that only adds to their appeal.