Mary Lou McDonald: 'The idea of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael being returned again for five years is unthinkable'

Mary Lou McDonald remains adamant that a coalition of the left can still be formed which would bring Sinn Féin into Government, and said that the idea of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael returning to power for five years is “unthinkable”.

“I mean this, as clear as day, we have been elected in very large numbers to be in Government, even to lead the next Government,” she said.

Ms McDonald was speaking in the wake of an event at a community centre in Ringsend in south inner city Dublin.

She said that having made contact with all parties in the Dáil last week this week will be “about getting more work done, and deepening those conversations with those respective parties”.

“There is undoubtedly a solid block of TDs for change for a new Government. I remain very determined that we deliver that Government,” she said, adding that “now we need to knuckle down on policy issues” on housing and the pension age, key issues which saw Sinn Féin gain great traction with the electorate.

“The idea of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael being returned again for five years is unthinkable,” she said.

“We can be clear that the outgoing Government was deeply unpopular, failed people in many and profound ways, and the people voted for change.”

Regarding the state of play which now sees the Green Party and its 12 TDs meeting with every party in Leinster House in an attempt to reach a consensus for Government, Ms McDonald said that she would ask those entities to examine their common cause with Sinn Féin.

“I don’t want to speak for other parties. What I can say is that with the Greens, with the Social Democrats, with Independents 4 Change, with Solidarity People Before Profit - there are very strong commonalities in our platforms and I think our first job is to investigate that and to make that more clear and to put substance around it,” she said.

Last week Eoin Ó Broin, Sinn Féin’s housing spokesman, had said that a left wing rainbow coalition would not be feasible given the numbers in the Dail, and that a new Government couldn’t be formed without Fianna Fáil.

“That’s what we need to figure out,” Ms McDonald said as to how a stable Government can be created from the various strands of left TDs that emerged from the election.

“The only thing that has come back to me very clearly speaking to people out and about over the last number of days is that there is no appetite for Fine Gael and Fianna Fail,” she said.

She said that the idea that the options now are either a grand coalition or another election is “not inevitable”.

I don’t think we’re destined to be in opposition at all, we have an extremely strong mandate and it’s a mandate for Government.

“If there is an election, then we will go and fight the election, I am not fearful of an election,” she said.

Regarding Breege Quinn, the mother of murdered Paul Quinn who this morning made a speech at Stormont in Belfast, Ms McDonald said that the issues between Ms Quinn and Sinn Féin’s Minister for Finance in the North Conor Murphy “will not be mediated over the airwaves”.

“I wish her peace of mind and above all I wish her justice because those that carried out this brutal murder are still at large,” she said.

Ms McDonald was speaking at an event at a community centre in Ringsend in south inner city Dublin, where, amongst other things, she gave an impromptu rendition of the Macarena, a dance first popularised in the late 1990s.