Sinn Féin says holding housing portfolio will be ‘key’ in coalition talks

Sinn Féin will make holding the housing portfolio a red line issue in any government formation talks after the next general election, its leader Mary Lou McDonald has said.

Speaking to reporters in Dublin on Friday at her party’s think-in, held in advance of the start of the parliamentary term next week, she said there weren’t other portfolios that would be red lines at this time, but “for us, housing is absolutely core, it’s absolutely key”.

“We have had a ringside seat now for government failure since the last general election,” she said, describing how a young mother-of-two in her constituency told her that it would take 10 years for her to be housed in a social home.

Ms McDonald said a Sinn Féin government would aim to address the crisis “at pace and at scale” but would not be drawn on a specific timeline within which the party could guarantee homelessness numbers would begin to fall if it were in government after the next election - only saying there would be “no lag” and that there would be a drop in homeless figures “very, very quickly” after entering office.

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Ms McDonald, who underwent a hysterectomy over the summer, said she had received flowers from the Taoiseach and a message from the Tánaiste while recovering, and said that across politics “people are decent and people are kind when it comes to peoples’ personal health”.

“Rumours of my demise are greatly exaggerated. I’m back and I’m sure the lads will be thrilled out of their minds to have me back,” she said.

Seat target

Ms McDonald would not be drawn on a specific target for the general election, or how many of the extra 14 Dáil seats - due to be created under a review of constituencies - the party was hopeful of winning. “Our objective is to win as many votes as we can, to win as many seats as we can.”

She said that after the last election, she “could not walk the length of myself” without someone telling her that Sinn Féin had botched its electoral strategy by not running enough candidates.

“This time we will not make that mistake. We will be prepared, we will be match fit and we will go to the people in all humility but well prepared and looking for as big a mandate as we can take.”

Ms McDonald said the best outcome of the next general election would be one without Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. In her keynote speech to the party’s Oireachtas members, she said the parties “stand against the tide of positive, progressive change sweeping across Ireland”.

“The longer Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are in government the worse things will get. They are out of touch, out of ideas and increasingly out of time.”

She said the largest party after the next election should be given the first opportunity to form a government, but warned that there was “no presumption of anything” among the Sinn Féin party. She predicted that housing would be the “central focus” of the next campaign, saying there was a “dramatic” failure of government policy there.

Ms McDonald said she would favour direct exchequer funding for RTÉ in line with the recommendations of the future of media commission, which delivered its report last year. Asked about the potential for political interference in that case, she said public service broadcasting by definition would have to be “absolutely independent of any political, not just interference, but bias - it should be in no way partisan, it has to be absolutely independent”.

Unity

On the question of planning for Irish unity Ms McDonald said research and preparation, as well as cooperation on a North South basis, needed to be put on a “much more robust footing”, and called for the development of a range of white papers and green papers on the wider constitutional, institutional and policy implications of Irish unity would be at the centre of government.

“Preparation for Irish unity can’t just be siphoned off or left in a silo of Government, it needs to be planned at the heart of government.”

She said Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was correct that Ireland is on a path to unity. “The question and the challenge for him and for Government is what are they going to do about that,” she added, saying there needed to be inclusive, respectful, democratic and peaceful which required “active planning”. She said she welcomed Leo Varadkar “into the republican tent”.

Delivering her keynote address, she outlined her belief that “this is the generation that will end partition, bring all of our people together in common purpose and finish the journey to full nationhood”.

She told reporters that Sinn Féin did not own the question of Irish unity but that there was a “massive opportunity to build an inclusive, prosperous and fair society”.