Taoiseach makes Leo Varadkar 'look like a member of Kneecap', says Áontú leader
Áontú leader Peadar Tóibín said: 'If you take the issue of a united Ireland at the moment - Leo Varadkar (left) is more Republican than Micheál Martin (right). Micheál Martin makes Leo Varadkar look like a member of Kneecap at this moment in time.' File photo: Sasko Lazarov/© RollingNews.ie
Taoiseach Micheál Martin makes his predecessor Leo Varadkar "look like a member of Kneecap" in terms of their outlook on Irish unity, the Áontú leader Peadar Tóibín has claimed.
Ahead of his party's ard fheis this weekend, Mr Tóibín told that while he wants his party in government, he cannot foresee a coalition with Fianna Fáil while Mr Martin is leader.
Mr Tóibín formed the party in 2019 after he was suspended from the Sinn Féin parliamentary party for defying party whip and voting against abortion legislation.
Since then, Áontú has grown to have two TDs, a senator and eight councillors and has commanded a larger proportion of the public debate than its numbers alone, with Mr Tóibín being seen as the major political winner in last March's two failed referendums, having been a prominent advocate of No votes in both.
Mr Tóibín describes the party as being formed "in the triangle of Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, and the SDLP", but says that he believes that Fianna Fáil no longer represents its members under the Taoiseach, with whom the Meath TD had frequent sparring matches during last year's election.
Mr Tóibín was a member of Ógra Fianna Fáil in his student days and says he does not recognise the party now.
"I have nothing personally against Micheál Martin. Micheál Martin is a very able individual. He's a very fluent individual. And he's probably the great political survivor.
"I was a member of the Kevin Barry cummann, which is the Fianna Fáil cumann in University College Dublin (UCD), and there were good people, and they would have had the same attitudes as myself, in terms of a united Ireland, in terms the Irish language and Irish culture, in terms of making sure that the distribution of wealth was somewhat fair, in terms of small farmers and working-class people etc, good housing, good delivery of public services.
"But I honestly think that Fianna Fáil is unrecognisable now under Micheál Martin.
"I honestly think Fianna Fáil has been gutted into a hollow husk of its former self. Its general membership around the country had certain values. Those values I don't believe are visible anymore at the leadership level.
"And I think that's the tool in which Micheál Martin has used to manage to survive, but also damage his party - the finger in the air to find out which way the wind is blowing."
Mr Tóibín says that he wants his party's TD numbers to be in double figures after the next election and would consider coalition with Fianna Fáil, but the road to a marriage of convenience with his former party Sinn Féin looks less clear.
He says that he believes that Irish politics moved to the left between 2010 and 2020 and that the party had "tacked to the left".
He says that he does not believe his politics - which has seen Áontú on the right of social issues and immigration - have changed since he left Sinn Féin and that "it's interesting to see Sinn Féin significantly tack to the right again" on issues like immigration and trans rights.
"I think people got very tired of what they would have seen, this kind of virtue signalling politics, rather than people really kind of listening to the real issues."
Mr Tóibín's mention of others engaging in cultural politics prompts the question about his own use of the same - on hate speech, trans rights, and a recent spat between the press and People Before Profit's Ruth Coppinger - but he says he does not want Áontú to be a party of the culture wars.
"I'll be honest to you, from the very start, we have made a decision, and we have tried to kind convince all our reps to do the same thing. It's 90% bread and butter, 10% culture wars.
"And that's because I actually think 90% of the population are just interested in whether they can get a house, whether they get access to healthcare, and whether their child can get access to special needs education, whether they can put the money in the fuel in the car to get to work."
Likewise, Áontú has found fertile ground in its critique of the international protection system, advocating for stricter entry requirements and a three-month turnaround, but its leader rejects the notion that the party is the acceptable face of far-right opposition to migrants.
"That whole space is so fractured, it's so damaging, it's so aggressive. We have never held any truck with it. We've never attended any of the protests. And we've never shared platforms or anything like that."
Mr Tóibín's ard fheis speech on Sunday will be the first time Áontú's has been televised, which he takes as proof that double-digit Dáil representation is possible.
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