SINN FÉIN ARDFHEIS:SINN FÉIN president Gerry Adams told his party's annual conference that rather than a Government reshuffle the Government "needs to go".
Mr Adams in his keynote address to the party’s ardfheis at the RDS in Dublin on Saturday night, said Sinn Féin was opposed to the Fianna Fáil/Green coalition because it was unfair and unsustainable.
Also addressing the ardfheis, the North’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said Sinn Féin had “absolutely no interest” in coalition with Fine Gael.
Delegates had voted at the ardfheis on Friday night by a large majority to keep Sinn Féin's options open on coalition with either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael after the next general election. But speaking on Saturday, Mr McGuinness recalled Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny's appearance on the Late Late Showand said: "Enda seemed fairly certain that he wouldn't go into government with Sinn Féin but he seemed less sure about exactly why.
“Well, let me help Fine Gael out: a bit like George Lee, we have absolutely no interest in government with Fine Gael or with their policies.
“More of the same isn’t what is required in the Ireland of 2010. We need new thinking and new ideas.” He added: “I have to say, unlike Enda Kenny, I do know what it is like to operate a coalition government. In case it has escaped his attention, I jointly head one, alongside Peter Robinson.
“Unlike his party colleagues, Sinn Féin Ministers take decisions . . . daily which impact on the lives of Irish citizens. That’s why it is laughable when I hear commentators or political rivals in this State say that Sinn Féin cannot be trusted in government, or we do not have experience in government. They need to wake and look north.
“We are in government, we are taking the hard decisions and we are doing a good job. Their attitude isn’t just arrogant, it is partitionist and it is absolutely unacceptable,” Mr McGuinness said.
Mr Adams in his address outlined to the ardfheis Sinn Féin’s €3.2 billion stimulus plan to help bring the Republic out of recession and on Northern Ireland he repeated that the Hillsborough Castle Agreement was a “staging post” – although he refrained from specifically saying it was a staging post to a united Ireland.
He said that when the Celtic Tiger economy was at its height, and when the surplus of wealth was the greatest in the history of this State, “the establishment refused to distribute the wealth in the common good and to secure the future. They would not nationalise the wealth. But now they are happy to nationalise the debt. There is talk of a Cabinet reshuffle. This Government doesn’t need a reshuffle. This Government needs to go,” he added.
“Do they really think the people are amadáns? Do they really expect the people to foot the bill for the bankers, the developers and their political cronies? The people need to send them a message. The people need to tell them to get lost,” he said.
Sinn Féin vice-president Mary Lou McDonald told delegates that, if anyone doubted Sinn Féin’s ability to deliver in government she would say: “Look up the road [to Belfast].” The former Dublin MEP reminded delegates that the organisation was “this country’s oldest political party” but added that it “stood for a new, better Ireland”.
“The current Fianna Fáil-Green administration is not so much a Government as an affliction,” she said.
Now, more than ever, a new approach was needed. A Cabinet reshuffle was only “a recipe for more of the same bad politics”, she added.