Ahern defends plan for FF in North

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern yesterday claimed that unionists should have no fear of Fianna Fáil extending into a 32-county party.

The Taoiseach used the occasion of his party’s annual Wolfe Tone commemoration speech at Bodenstown, Co Kildare, to highlight his party’s ambitions to organise on an all-Ireland basis.

He disclosed that he wrote to all of Fianna Fáil’s 3,000 units last week, setting out details of the consultation process on this issue within the party and requesting submissions to the committee examining this issue, chaired by Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern.