Sinn Féin will run its largest ever number of candidates in the forthcoming general election and will be looking to win at least one seat in each of the 43 constituencies, party leader Mary Lou McDonald has said.
Ms McDonald said that the party had not yet determined its final slate of candidates but would be running a larger number than ever before.
“We will be running more candidates than in 2020 because I didn’t hear the end of that after that election. We’re running to win in every constituency, and in some constituencies we will be contesting to win more than one seat,” she said.
Ms McDonald said she would not be presumptuous or arrogant about it and added the party would have to go out and make the case to the Irish people that it was time for a change of government, after 14 years of Fine Gael being in power.
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Speaking to reporters at her party’s ardfheis in Athlone, Ms McDonald said that Sinn Féin would offer choices to the electorate in housing, childcare, health and the cost of living.
Asked if there were any parties she would rule out as possible coalition partners, Ms McDonald said the party’s preferred outcome was for a government that did not include either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. However, she did not specifically exclude any party in her response.
Ms McDonald said it was no longer sustainable for any party to say the provision to hold a unity referendum contained in the Belfast Agreement would not be activated, despite the agreement being 26 years old.
She said the UK Labour Party, when last in government, had championed the agreement and had also helped build the peace process.
“We are now at a point where we take it to the next step ... The government in London, and by the way, the government in Dublin, can’t continuously delay and dither. There’s a provision for referendums. The referendums will happen, and the challenge now for both governments is to prepare for that,” Ms McDonald said.
Asked if her party acknowledged mistakes in its approach to the local and European elections in June, Ms McDonald accepted the elections had not been good for the party.
“We had a review after that election. I thought I was really clear, actually, in acknowledging where we need to do better,” she said.
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