Adams willing to lead government if Sinn Féin in position

Gerry Adams has said he is willing to lead a government if Sinn Féin is in a position to form one.

Dismissing questions about his own future and about his party's fluctuating performances in the polls, Mr Adams urged people to "forget about the polls, let people have their say".

He was speaking at Sinn Féin’s final press conference of the election campaign at the National Gallery.

The party’s support has dropped in a series of opinion polls in the past week, part of which has been attributed to uneven performances by Mr Adams in interviews and debates.

However, Mr Adams and three senior colleagues insisted that this would be a big election for the party, building on what he described as the “breakthrough” election of 2011. He portrayed Friday as having the potential to be “our 1916 Rising, an entirely peaceful one”.

Party deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald suggested the party was performing well in the “ground war” with its candidates.

“There are two different conversations. There is a very different conversation on the the doorsteps.

"People are disillusioned because the democratic revolution never materialised. The Labour Party let people down very badly. There are alternatives for decent services and for reliefs for low- and middle-income families.

The two other contributors at the conference were finance spokesman Pearse Doherty and Cork South-Central councillor Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire.

Uneven

The four disagreed with the suggestions that another term or more of opposition for Sinn Féin was inevitable and the party’s progress in Southern politics had been uneven.

In his opening remarks Mr Adams referred to the concession made by Taoiseach Enda Kenny during the leaders debate' on Tuesday night, when he said for the first time he had appointed John McNulty to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

"Despite promising a democratic revolution, Enda Kenny has kept the Fianna Fáil legacy of cronyism and political patronage alive and well," he claimed. He also said the Taoiseach was "not good at the breaking ball" and had been "caught like a rabbit in the headlights" when the issue of Mr McNulty had been brought up during the RTÉ debate.

Mr Adams rejected the premise of questions that he had shown a poor grasp of figures and finances. He said that he was part of a team that had put the Sinn Féin economics package together.

On the murder of the senior prison officer Brian Stack by the IRA, Mr Adams was asked about disparaging comments made by Martin Ferris in his autobiography. Mr Adams said what he had written was "a matter for Mr Ferris".