Mary Lou McDonald urges Taoiseach to 'get the finger out' on issue of Irish unity

The Taoiseach commented that Fianna Fáil is a party that beleives in Irish unity 

Ms McDonald criticised the Taoiseach for not commissioning a Green Paper on what the future of Ireland might look like. File picture: Clodagh Kilcoyne/PA

Sinn Féin and the Government parties have traded barbs on the issue of a united Ireland with Mary Lou McDonald telling the Taoiseach to "get the finger out".

Conversation on the issue intensified over the weekend after US president Donald Trump said reunification of the island is "natural", but Micheál Martin has since moved to talk down any immediate prospect of a border poll, saying much work remains to be done.

At the National Ploughing Championshipstarget="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> in Screggan, Co Offaly, Mr Martin said he believes the cause of Irish unity may have been set back by a Sinn Féin conference alongside Wales' Plaid Cymru and Scotland's SNP during which the three signed an agreement which said "Westminster's time is coming to an end".

"I'm not into campaigning, but I would make the point that strategically we have never embroiled Northern Ireland in British politics. We've always identified the north as exceptional, as being an issue in terms of the partition of Ireland.

"And I think strategically I'm not clear that Sinn Féin is on the right track at all, and may even set back unity by that move that they've made," he said.

Mr Martin said he would continue to engage with the UK on the issue and that his Shared Island Unit was the "most consequential piece of work" done in recent years.

"That's how the Good Friday Agreement came about — that the two governments anchored that with all of the political parties in Northern Ireland, developing principles such as parity of esteem, respect for each other's traditions, and endeavouring to move in a reconciled way towards the future."

Mr Martin added that Fianna Fáil is a party that believes in "Irish unity, and we have made our significant contribution".

Speaking at the same event, Tánaiste Simon Harris, whose Fine Gael party is preparing a blueprint for national unity for later this year, questioned what the conference had achieved.

"In a democracy, anybody can meet with anybody, and it's good people are meeting with each other now and talking and engaging. I think any time people are having meetings, democratic meetings, the leader of any political party can and should meet the leader of any other political party.

"I'm not sure what it advances, and I don't say that in a dismissive way. I think the issue about the future of the island of Ireland will ultimately be for people on the island of Ireland to determine, and I think you've got to do that. I do think there's a responsibility in all the political parties to step up and participate in that conversation. 

It's not a conversation that's going away. It's also a legitimate conversation. The Good Friday Agreement was not a vote for the status quo. It wasn't a vote for this far and no further.

However, speaking later at the Ploughing, Ms McDonald criticised the Taoiseach for not commissioning a Green Paper on what the future of Ireland might look like.

"Rather than throwing shade at us, I would suggest respectfully to the Taoiseach that he get the finger out and start doing his job," the Sinn Féin leader said.

"There is an onus on him now to plan and to prepare. Only the government in Dublin can clear the necessary democratic space and structures that we need now for the engagement, the deliberation, the challenge that will come also for us to consider all manner of questions."

• Paul Hosford is Deputy Political Editor.