McDowell: SF could be 'king maker'

The next General Election cannot be portrayed simply as a battle between the current coalition Government and a rainbow coalition, Justice Minister Michael McDowell insisted today.

Mr McDowell told the Progressive Democrats national conference in Limerick it was wrong to ignore the possibility that Sinn Féin could potentially act as a king maker in the next Dáil, deciding the make up of the next government.

He told conference delegates: “There are many commentators who want the election to be a simple two-horse race between the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrat coalition and the Rainbow.

“But that version is false.

“It is fundamentally flawed. It ignores two basic political facts – two facts which haven’t gone away you know.

“First there is the issue of Sinn Féin. If they get between 8% and 10% of the vote and translate that into seats they will win between 11 and 16 seats in the next Dáil. And the paper (before delegates) spells out what that will mean if those seats constitute the effective balance of power.

“Second, there is the question of the Rainbow.

“No one believes that a Fine Gael-Labour-Green Rainbow could win a majority and have more seats than Fianna Fáil, the Progressive Democrats, the non-left independents and Sinn Féin unless it were to be supported and kept in office by Joe Higgins, Seamus Healy, Catherine Murphy, Tony Gregory and perhaps one or two others.

“That my friends is a slump coalition. The Rainbow scenario by any reasonable analysis is a government which would be left dominated and dependent on the hard left.”