As the election campaign in the Northern Ireland gathered pace yesterday, the Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, found himself at the centre of a row with Sinn Fein after ruling out the idea of Northern politicians taking seats in the Dail.
Sinn Fein's vice-president, Mr Pat Doherty, accused Mr Quinn of being "partitionist".
The Labour leader, who was campaigning in Belfast for the SDLP, said it was "just not constitutionally possible" to have elected Northern politicians in the Irish Parliament.
Mr Quinn said: "I mean the Irish state and the Irish nation are two different things . . . I think Gerry Adams was quite frankly being somewhat misleading when he chose to put that point across."