Ahern election comments 'unhelpful' - Rabbitte
Suggestions that Fianna Fail may contest elections in Northern Ireland were not helpful, the Labour Party leader claimed today.
Pat Rabbitte said after a round of meetings with nationalist, unionists and cross community assembly members that recent hints by Mr Ahern that his party could set up branches in Northern Ireland were fanciful.
The Labour leader said: “I don’t think they will.
“I think the Taoiseach was off on a frolic for whatever reason maybe connected to the time of year.
“I don’t think it is realistic or helpful in the present environment.
“The present position of the Labour Party is that the new constitution facilitates our establishing branches in Brussels, London, Belfast but not for the purposes of participating in elections.
“There are labour minded people in Northern Ireland who are for whatever reason not members of the SDLP who have joined our party but not for the purposes of entering into an overcrowded electoral environment.”
During Christmas Mr Ahern told a newspaper that his party would have to consider its role on both sides of the border.
He told the Sunday Business Post that since the Good Friday Agreement “the context and the dynamic of politics on this island have changed” and Fianna Fail might have to consider becoming a 32 county party by organising in the six counties of Northern Ireland.
Currently Sinn Fein is the only party to contest elections on a north-south basis.
Mr Ahern’s comments have fuelled speculation that his party may enter the political foray north of the border and it is believed that were it to do that it would impact significantly on the membership and vote of the nationalist SDLP in Northern Ireland.
Last week SDLP leader Mark Durkan dismissed claims that Fianna Fail might organise, claiming it would “create a degree of distraction” and reduce the number of ministries available to nationalists in the Assembly at Stormont.
Mr Rabbitte would not today be drawn on how he could foresee political realignment in Northern Ireland and the Republic in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement.
The Labour leader said: “In whatever realistic timespan I could foresee, I can foresee myself being preoccupied with problems other than that one.”
Mr Rabbitte was joined at Stormont by deputy leader Liz McManus, Brendan Howlin and adviser Fergus Finlay.
The delegation met members of the SDLP, Sinn Fein, Ulster Unionists, cross community Alliance Party, the Women’s Coalition, the loyalist Progressive of Unionists and individual Assembly members from the Reverend Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists.
The discussions centred on the current difficulties in the Northern Ireland peace process.
