The Sinn Féin's leader, Mr Gerry Adams, and the party's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, attended the second night of Dáil debate on the party's Private Members' motion on the North last night. Michael O'Regan reports.
Along with party chairman, Mr Mitchell McLaughlin, former Minister Ms Bairbre de Brún and MP Ms Michelle Gildernew, they watched from the Distinguished Visitors' Gallery as the party's motion was defeated by 124 votes to 10.
The party's leader in the Dáil, Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, said that the "dictatorial power" to cancel elections in the North and to suspend elections had to be taken away from the British government.
He said the Irish Government had to give leadership and "must not act as a subordinate party in an unequal relationship, the way the British government has too often treated it, but as a co-equal partner in an international agreement".