Labour Party leader Mr Ruairí Quinn was tonight at the centre of an election row after he ruled out Northern Ireland politicians taking seats in the Dáil.
Sinn Féin vice president Mr Pat Doherty accused him of being "partitionist" when he said the Belfast Agreement made it impossible for MPs and Assembly members to take part in the Dáil.Mr Quinn, who was campaigning on the streets of Belfast on behalf of the SDLP, said it was "just not constitutionally possible" to have elected Northern Ireland politicians in the Irish Parliament.Mr Quinn argued: "The Irish people have already spoken on the constitutional question."It's called the Good Friday Agreement and 90 per cent of the people clearly voted for a constitutional settlement that clearly has set a contract which people should follow."To be throwing around those kind of ideas is clearly to ignore the reality of years of careful negotiations on the constitutional settlement which was overwhelmingly endorsed by the people of the Republic of Ireland."I mean the Irish state and the Irish nation are two different things. There are Irish people living right across the world but there are people living in the state of Ireland who have representation under the constitution and I think Gerry Adams was quite frankly being somewhat misleading when he chose to put that point across."However Mr Doherty, who is involved in a tight contest for the seat of West Tyrone opposite the SDLP's Ms Brid Rodgers and Ulster Unionist Mr William Thompson, hit back, urging the Labour leader to "be more imaginative"."That is the most partitionist comment I have heard for some time," he responded."Everything is constitutionally possible. The Republic is having a referendum on June 7th on European Union enlargement and the Nice Treaty."What we developing is a way to democratically find an outlet for voters in the North, so that a vote in Co Tyrone has the same validity as a vote in Co Mayo or Co Dublin."Northern Assembly members and MPs should have the right to participate and debate in the Dáil. It is dispiriting that Ruairí Quinn is so disastrously limited in his vision." PA