SF: SDLP should join our push for Dáil rights
The SDLP was today urged to join forces with Sinn Féin to press for the North's MPs to have speaking rights in the Dáil.
Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness issued the appeal to SDLP leader Mark Durkan a day after Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was accused of watering down such a proposal.
As Sinn Féin prepared for this weekend's party conference in Dublin, the Mid Ulster MP also said nationalists in the North were disappointed by the failure of the SDLP to work with his party on a Durkan/Adams approach to key issues.
“Bertie Ahern appears to be saying he cannot deliver on his original plan for Northern representation in the Dáil because of opposition among Dublin's political elite,” Mr McGuinness said.
“I would think it would be in the interests of nationalists if the SDLP and Sinn Féin were to both make it clear that representatives in the North have a right to address the Dáil on matters affecting their part of the island."
