Sinn Féin in cross-border talks
Sinn Féin will bring its strengthened team of representatives to Stormont tomorrow for the first time since the party’s General Election gains in the Republic.
Sinn Féin Assembly group leader John O’Dowd said the party’s 14 Dáil members will meet MLAs to plan their cross-border political strategy.
The meeting comes as deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness urged National University of Ireland graduates living in the North to back a Sinn Féin candidate for the Seanad elections in the south.
The elections to the upper house of the Oireachtas follow Sinn Féin’s General Election outing where it increased its 2007 tally of 4 TDs to 14.
Mr O’Dowd said: “Tomorrow’s meeting will see 41 Sinn Féin TDs and MLAs gather in Stormont for the first time since the recent southern election.
“This first meeting will focus primarily on advancing the united Ireland and all-Ireland political agenda.
“No other political party on this island has the depth and geographical spread of Sinn Féin elected representatives. We are the only party with a strategy and a team to deliver all-Ireland political change.”
He added: “Others talk about the all-Ireland agenda. Sinn Fein are the all-Ireland agenda in action.”
His comments came as the party hopes its political gains in the Republic will help boost its campaign in the North ahead of the May 5 Assembly election and local government elections.
Mr McGuinness said he also hoped Sinn Féin could ensure a presence in the Seanad and urged northern voters entitled to participate in elements of the election to support party candidate, former Belfast city councillor, Eoin O Broin.
“This is a unique opportunity for some voters in the North to participate in an Oireachtas election,” Mr McGuinness said.
“For the first time people who live in the Six Counties who are graduates of the National University of Ireland, will have an opportunity to vote for Sinn Fein in an Oireachtas election.
“Electing a Sinn Féin Senator will strengthen our hand in the Oireachtas and increase pressure for the extension of voting rights and northern representation in the Dáil.”
He claimed supporting his party in the National University Panel in the Seanad elections would help hold the coalition government of Fine Gael and Labour to account.
Mr O Broin, who was born in Dublin and now lives there and who contested the recent General Election, spent 11 years in Belfast where he held a number of senior posts for the party and was elected to Belfast City Council in 2001.
