Former FF TD bids to join Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin's national executive is expected to consider tomorrow an application from an ex-Fianna Fáil TD to join the party.
President Gerry Adams confirmed the Ard Comhairle would meet tomorrow, but he would not speculate on names up for consideration for party membership.
Chris Andrews formally applied to join the party and is understood to have been in talks with Sinn Féin bosses about running in next summer’s local elections.
“The fact is our party is growing and the fact is that there are people who were involved in other parties who have come to join us,” Mr Adams said.
“The protocol within the party is that that has to be endorsed by the Ard Comhairle.
“The Ard Comhairle will be meeting on Saturday. I don’t want to speculate on any of the names. It wouldn’t be fair on the Ard Comhairle and it wouldn’t be fair on the people who want to join us.”
Mr Andrews resigned from Fianna Fáil last year following a social media controversy and clash with party leader Micheál Martin.
It emerged the 49-year-old, whose grandfather Todd Andrews helped found Fianna Fáil, set up a phoney Twitter account which he used to criticise Mr Martin and other figures within the party.
He was discovered after Eddy Carroll, husband of senior party figure Kathryn Byrne, used video and photo surveillance to catch him in the act.
Mr Andrews, who served as a TD for Dublin South-East, is hoping to run in the next local elections in the Ringsend area.
He is the nephew of David Andrews, a former Fianna Fáil minister who helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement.
Sinn Féin president Mr Adams, who would not be drawn on whether he believed Mr Andrews would be a suitable candidate, was speaking at the party’s think-in in Carlingford, Co Louth.
In what was the first of the special parliamentary party meetings ahead of the return of the Dáil, Sinn Fein finance spokesman Pearse Doherty criticised the Government for seeking a €10bn overdraft from the Troika.
The Government’s plan is not to use the cash, but to have it as a buffer for when the country exits its bailout at the end of the year.
But Mr Doherty insisted it was a “second bailout” and demanded Finance Minister Michael Noonan reveal the terms and conditions Ireland has signed up to with its debt masters.
“This is a second bailout, it’s available as a second bailout to the State, it’s been negotiated as a second bailout, it’s not free money,” Mr Doherty said.
“There will be terms and conditions, there will be things the Government have signed up to, to impose on the Irish people as a result of them accessing this second bailout.”
The Finance Minister will thrash out the details of the €10bn deal with the Troika – the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank – after the budget in October.
