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6 March 2015

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Sinn Féin says no to a Government led by Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil


SINN FÉIN will not enter a Government led by either Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, the party’s Ard Fheis in Derry voted on Friday night.

Sinn Féin wants to have enough TDs returned at the next general election so that it can lead a government and ensure that a republican programme delivers for the people.

Speaking in favour of Motion 52, opposing joining any government led by Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, Pearse Doherty TD told delegates:

“Our country deserves a fresh start from the failed politics of the years past. It also deserves a new hope that a new government – guided by the needs of the many rather than the greed of the few – can make a real, positive difference.”

Pearse described these as:

“Fine words, loaded with promise and no doubt written with self-confidence – but not my words; they are the words of Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore in their Programme for Government.

He said the Fine Gael/Labour Coalition is a government that took the hopes of the citizens and cast them aside with their manifesto promises.

It was, he said:

“A government, drunk on hubris, reverted to type – the only difference being the names on the doors

“A government that picked up the Fianna Fáil playbook and took it to a whole other level.”

As families struggle to make mortgage and rent payments; as grandparents hope they don’t fall sick; as parents plan their Skype call to emigrant families in Australia and elsewhere, he said, they watch the Fine Gael and Labour conferences and wonder: “What planet are these people on?”

The people want change, he said. They want a fair recovery.  

AP Election Special poster“In growing numbers people across Ireland recognise that Sinn Féin are the only party to deliver that change.” 

Other political representatives measure their success in terms of position and the size of their pension pot, the Donegal TD said.

“That is not the Sinn Féin way.

“We measure success by what we achieve for others, not by want we gain for ourselves.

“We developed and embedded the Peace Process not for ministerial office but because it was the right thing to do.

“We have a leadership team that put their own lives and liberty on the line because it was the right thing to do.

“We carry the memory of party members who paid for their beliefs with their lives, to build a republic for all.

“Yet the media are obsessed with the mathematics of the possible coalition governments.

“They miss the point.

“It is not about who you go into government with but what you want to achieve in government.

“Sinn Féin want to lead a government which will deliver fundamental change.

“To lead a government that will deliver a fair recovery.

“A government that will build prosperity and equality for all.

“A government that will provide public services and support for those in need.

“A government that will unite our country and deliver the promise of Easter 1916.”

Over 90 years, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour have all failed in government to deliver “these modest   aims”, the Sinn Féin deputy said.

“We have no interest in propping up failed parties for the benefit of ministerial position – that is what the Labour Party is for.

“Let us commit ourselves to Sinn Féin not entering a government led by Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.”

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Contributions from key figures in the churches, academia and wider civic society as well as senior republican figures

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