A chara, - Your Editorial of August 10th, "Sinn Féin and the Dáil", contained a string of misrepresentations. Let me make clear the Sinn Féin position on Six-County representation in the Dáil.
We are working towards an All-Ireland Dáil, representative of 32 Counties and with jurisdiction over the whole island. Obviously, for that to happen, British rule in the North will have to come to an end. Does that mean nothing should be done in the meantime? Certainly not.
Following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern asked the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution to examine the issue of Northern representation. It took the committee until 2002 to report. It looked at a range of options. It recommended that MPs from the Six Counties would have "a limited right of audience within the Dáil". This "might technically be effected through the Dáil periodically forming itself into a Committee of the Whole House for the purposes of selected debates". MPs would "speak in periodic debates on Northern Ireland matters and on the operation of the Good Friday Agreement".
At no time did Sinn Féin state that such a facility should be open only to Sinn Féin MPs, as your Editorial suggested. Clearly SDLP members would avail of it and while unionists, initially, would be unlikely to participate, their attendance would be especially welcome.
The Taoiseach has committed himself and his Government to taking forward the committee's recommendations. The Government parties and Fine Gael voted for a Dáil motion in these terms in 2003, even though Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny is now rubbishing the idea of Six-County representation in the Dáil(Michael Collins must be turning in his grave).
Your Editorial followed a story headlined "SF admits Adams wrong on Dáil speaking rights" (August 9th). While some people may have decided to interpret the Taoiseach's position and Gerry Adams's position as incompatible, the reality is quite different.
The Sinn Féin president's original comment in the Irish Times article is as correct as the Taoiseach's follow-up comment. The Taoiseach has given a commitment for Northern MPs to speak in the Dáil, albeit on Dáil Committees as opposed to plenary sessions of the Dáil. That, in anybody's book, is still speaking in the Dáil. If others wish to split hairs on the issue in pursuit of a story that doesn't exist, then that is a matter for themselves.
rthermore, attempts to suggest, as you did in your Editorial, that there was something sinister in Gerry Adams's comments in the original Irish Times article of August 5th and that it was designed to "antagonise loyalists", or that it was an element of "political gamesmanship", or to say Sinn Féin was looking for "quasi-ministerial licence" to speak in the Dáil are all nonsense.
It is up to the Irish Government to act on the report published in 2002. We have argued that action is long overdue. The Taoiseach has indicated that he is prepared to move on this issue. While Sinn Féin welcomes this proposed limited step forward we will still campaign to see it extended to rights to speak at plenary Dáil sessions. - Is mise,
CAOIMHGHÍN Ó CAOLÁIN TD, Sinn Féin Dáil leader, Teach Laighean, Baile Átha Cliath 2.