THE ULSTER Unionist Party (UUP) will consider Fianna Fáil as future coalition partners in Northern Ireland in years to come, Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív has predicted.
Fianna Fáil, which recently started cumainn in the University of Ulster in Derry and Queens University in Belfast, is currently examining options for development in the North.
Mr Ó Cuív rejected the argument put forward by some in the party that it should establish grassroots organisations in Northern Ireland, but not actually contest elections. Fianna Fáil could very quickly, he said, face applications for membership from people who were already elected to bodies in Northern Ireland and who would want to run again.
"We could find ourselves in a situation where we are confronted by Northern elections in a short time after organising there."
He noted that Ulster Unionist Party leader Reg Empey was the only senior Unionist politician to criticise openly Fianna Fáil's Northern expansion.
Despite this, Mr Ó Cuív, who is Éamon de Valera's grandson, said: "The question that Ulster Unionists will be asking is that if they are bound to share power with a nationalist party, would they prefer it to be Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil or do they think that the SDLP can reverse the tide."
He believed that the Ulster Unionist Party could see Fianna Fáil "as the favoured party. The answer to this is not black and white," he told the Ógra Fianna Fáil conference.
Fianna Fáil should not limit its catchment just to nationalist voters who supported Sinn Féin, or the SDLP, or who did not vote at all.
The weekend Ógra conference, attended by hundreds of delegates, marked the first occasion when the party has had members from all 32 counties.
