FF may have to seek SF support, says Rabbitte
Responding to comments by junior Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern about a possible SF role in a future Government, the Labour leader said it was “a fairly frank admission that FF will not be able to rely on the support of the PDs alone to form a Government after the next election”.
He said that for him and for his party, the question of SF being made welcome at the Cabinet table did not arise.
“I have always sought to respect the democratic mandate, but I have often wondered whether a democratic mandate is something to which Sinn Féin itself pays little more than lip service.”
Mr Rabbitte was addressing the Northern Ireland Government Affairs Group in Belfast yesterday.
He said that as things stood, “most people would be rightly sceptical of any claim Sinn Féin might make to a place in Government as a coalition partner”.
Turning to the peace process, Mr Rabbitte said there were “good indications” that the IRA will make some sort of commitment to peace before Christmas.
He said if the commitment was total, it could well form the basis for the restoration of institutions in the North and the resumption of the Good Friday Agreement’s North-South dimension.
Mr Rabbitte was also in Belfast to launch the Northern Ireland Labour Forum. The forum is intended to provide a platform for those on the centre left to broaden political debate beyond what Mr Rabbitte described as its “current narrow confines”.
