SF rules out beefed up role for TDs in party’s leadership structure

THERE will not be a greater role for Sinn Féin’s low-key Dáil deputies in its leadership structure despite an ambition to win at least seven seats in the next general election.

Party president Gerry Adams, Northern assemblyman Martin McGuinness and its vice president Mary Lou McDonald said the current system – dominated by politicians without an electoral mandate in the south – would remain.

And its Dáil leader Caoimhghín O Caoláin said there was no division between the politicians elected to the Oireachtas and the rest of the organisation.

“We are not in competition. We are absolutely united as a party leadership,” he said.

They were speaking during a think-in at the Ard Boyne hotel in Navan, called to examine its poor local and European election performance following on from 2007’s general election disappointment.

Mr Adams said reports of acrimony between the northern core and the southern activists was “a bit of mischief making” by the media.

“Let’s get real about all this, we are a joined up cohesive and active leadership, we have different responsibilities,” he said.

Mr McGuinness also blamed the media for inflating the defection of three councillors – one was the party’s by-election candidate in Dublin Central – into a crisis.

He said Sinn Féin recognised it had not done as well as it expected and there was justification for European candidate Toireasa Ferris’s recent article which was critical of efforts to build a brand south of the border.

“There is a certain amount of dishonesty in how the media analyse what has happened over the course of the last while and I think you can make a big mistake by drawing a connection between a very tiny number of resignations and Toireasa’s article in An Phoblact.

“The resignations came from people who, in my opinion, put themselves before the party,” he said.

Yesterday’s meeting involved the party’s leadership along with selected activists.

At it, the Ard Comhairle confirmed its well-flagged intention to campaign against the re-run of the Lisbon treaty. Mr Adams said the treaty had not changed in substance.

However, former European Parliament president and director of the Ireland for Europe campaign, Pat Cox, said Sinn Féin was speaking from both sides of its mouth.

Mr Cox said the party was asking voters to align Ireland with the euro-sceptic Tories in Britain.

“While Sinn Féin struggled with their identity crisis in Navan, we in Ireland for Europe are convinced that Ireland’s identity thrives within Europe and that the EU continues to provide the framework for Ireland’s recovery and success,” he said.

Ms McDonald was again put forward as the party’s spokeswoman on the Lisbon treaty despite losing her MEP seat in June.

Internally, this led to questions on her remaining as the party’s vice-president without an electoral mandate in any jurisdictions.

However, Ms McDonald rejected the suggestion she should step aside and again blamed the media for the way her position was portrayed.

“An awful lot has been said in the media, some of it quite fantastical, about the demise of Sinn Féin,” she said.