SINN FÉIN:SINN FÉIN Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin has predicted his party will return to Leinster House after the general election with at least seven TDs.
Mr Ó Caoláin said Sinn Féin had experienced difficulties in the 30th Dáil, prior to the formation of the technical group with its five TDs and two Independents, because it did not have full speaking rights.
Asked to reveal Sinn Féin’s target, he said the “baseline goal” would be to come back to the Dáil with full political party status.
“It’s very, very difficult to put numbers on it. We’ve avoided doing that. But you can certainly see that the subtext of what I’ve said is that we would like most certainly to have full political party status here post the next general election, whatever number that would be,” he said.
Mr Ó Caoláin said Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, who is contesting the Louth constituency, would have no difficulty “fine-tuning” his position on economic matters in the Republic.
“I have no doubt by the way that there are many, many questions and nuances and what have you that will be difficult in the early stages. But Gerry Adams as the elected TD in the constituency of Co Louth here will have no difficulty in fine-tuning his position, understanding all of the nuance and what have you.”
He said Mr Adams had not “said a word out of place”. He said there was a “residual reaction” in sections of the media to Mr Adams’s performance in a four-way debate on RTÉ television before the 2007 general election, which was “not his best performance”.
