Warning to Sinn Féin over coalition role
Sinn Féin could be part of a future coalition government if it clearly severs its links with terror, the party was told tonight.
During a visit to Belfast, the leader of the Labour Party, Pat Rabbitte, said most people in his country were deeply sceptical about Sinn Féin's claim to Cabinet seats in Dublin.
He told the Northern Ireland Government Affairs Group: "I have always sought to respect the democratic mandate as it applies to Sinn Féin as much as to anyone else, but I have often wondered whether a democratic mandate is something to which Sinn Fein itself pays little more than lip service.
"Never slow to demand respect for their mandate, the very act of clinging to a paramilitary set of doctrines and structures seems to me to ignore the mandate of others, and indeed the very principle of democracy itself.
"The time may well come when it will be possible to treat Sinn Féin as one more part of the mix of democratic politics, and when that time comes it will be possible to subject them to the same sort of scrutiny that applies to other democratic parties - to examine their economic and social policies, to scrutinise their election funding and the resources available to them, to keep a watch on their performance in the places where it matters, like Dáil Eireann for instance.
"But as things stand right now, I happen to believe that most people would be rightly sceptical of any claim Sinn Féin might make to a place in government as a coalition partner."
Last week, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said, after a meeting with Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy, that he could envisage Sinn Féin forming part of a government. T
he minister said: "Obviously circumstances will change. There will come a time, I envisage, where Sinn Féin will be in government in the Republic as they will be in the north (of Ireland) and I hope that happens in the future."
Mr Ahern believed it was only a matter of time before this took place.
"But until such time as the IRA demonstrably show that they have put down arms forever and a day, there cannot be two armies," the Louth TD said.
"That's the reality and it's the same in the north as it is in the Republic."
Mr Rabbitte said Mr Ahern's comments had been interpreted as a sign that the complete disarmament and standing down of the IRA was a done deal.
The Dublin South West TD argued: "It is more likely, however, that Dermot Ahern's statement was a fairly frank admission that Fianna Fáil will not be able to rely on the support of the PDs (Progressive Democrats) alone to form a government after the next election.
"It is certainly the case that, wherever one goes in Ireland, it is possible to detect a quiet determination that this Government will never be allowed to fool the people again."
Mr Rabbitte said that, after the Leeds Castle talks in Kent, there was good reason for people to believe the IRA was preparing to make a statement committing itself fully to peace.
He said: "There is, I believe, every reason to be confident that we are looking at what is sometimes referred to as the endgame.
"There are good indications that, before Christmas this year, the IRA will finally have made the sort of commitment to peace that many of us despaired of hearing in our lifetimes.
"All of us, I know, hope that that commitment will indeed be total, that we will be told that they have decided their war is over and that they are ready to ensure that all arms are decommissioned in a sufficiently transparent way to inspire confidence throughout the community.
"And while there is a huge amount of work to be done, it does seem that, as and when that commitment is made, it could well form the basis of a restoration of democratic and accountable institutions in Northern Ireland and the resumption of good practical working arrangements between the executive in Northern Ireland and the government of the Republic."
Mr Rabbitte added he felt it was inevitable there would be a different government in the Irish Republic after the next election.
He argued that Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats' years in power had been characterised by a widening gap between rich and poor.
The Labour Party would offer voters a chance to replace the coalition government with an alternative which would deliver a fairer society, he said.
"I want to see this Government replaced with an alternative that is genuinely committed to a fair society based on social democratic principles, equal rights, liberty and the rule of law," Mr Rabbitte said.
"I am committed to working with other parties in Dáil Eireann to build a democratic alliance in pursuit of that alternative."
