Fine Gael must abandon the Northern Ireland policy legacy left by former Taoiseach, Mr John Bruton, which has allowed Sinn Féin to portray it as a pro-Unionist party, a Fine Gael TD has declared.
In a forthright intervention, Mr John Deasy, of Waterford, the party's frontbench justice spokesperson, said many voters in the Republic have perceived Mr Bruton's attitude towards Northern Ireland as "anti-nationalist".
"That has to change. There are enough young people in the party who believe that that must change. I believe that these sentiments are shared by Parliamentary Party members and by the rank-and-file.
"We are a party committed to a united Ireland, a nationalist party. I think that that may have been forgotten. We come from the tradition of Michael Collins and the party that founded the State," Mr Deasy told The Irish Times.
Fine Gael, he said, had taken "the wrong track, the wrong road". He added: "We have allowed Sinn Féin to dominate and orchestrate the nationalist agenda, which we should be doing in the Republic."
Mr Deasy said that change would be welcome on the ground. "The soundings that I have taken from ordinary members is that we need to get back to what Fine Gael is about, with a role to play in Northern Ireland. But it isn't the role left by John Bruton."
Calling for a debate about Northern Ireland within FG, he said Mr Bruton's attitude on Northern Ireland had allowed Sinn Féin "to denigrate us and consign us as a non-entity when it comes to the North".
Outlining his own family's republican pedigree, Mr Deasy, one of a small number of newly-elected Fine Gael TDs, said both of his grandfathers had fought with the Old IRA - one with Gen Tom Barry's Flying Column.
"I am someone who comes from a strong republican background. There are many others in Fine Gael who share a similar background. It is time that republicans in the South stood up and were heard on this issue," he went on.
Sharply criticising Sinn Féin, he said: "Everything in the peace process is revolving around them because they are holding the threat of violence over people's heads. The Irish and British governments are tiptoeing around them.
"We can't leave it to Sinn Féin to forward the peace process because, in effect, they are destroying it," said Mr Deasy. He also criticised loyalist "thugs" for attacking Catholic neighbourhoods.
The loyalist attacks, he said, are "used" by Sinn Féin "to promote their own agenda without any due regard for the peace process", and all of this is at the expense of the SDLP."I think some politicians in the South are afraid of confronting Sinn Féin and it is about time that politicians who come from the party who founded this State took on Sinn Féin: a party that was committed to the destruction of this State," said Mr Deasy.
