Mary Lou McDonald promises Sinn Féin ‘game changer’ in Áras race
Sinn Féin’s participation in the presidential election will be a “game changer”, party leader Mary Lou McDonald has said.
Ahead of the party making a final decision on the election this Saturday, Ms McDonald said she has decided what proposal she will bring to members this weekend.
Speaking at the Ploughing Championships in Co Offaly on Thursday, Ms McDonald would not indicate what the decision would be.
However, Ms McDonald said the candidate has a lot of Irish.
It does mean that the field has significantly narrowed, with Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty entering the race a strong possibility or the party deciding to back Catherine Connolly.
“We will have a decision on Saturday, and I think Sinn Féin’s participation will be a game changer in this election. It’ll be very much game on,” Ms McDonald said.
“We’re going to be very active in this important campaign it, which starts, by the way, on the 24th of September, with the close of nominations. Then there will be four weeks or a bit more, of active campaigning, plenty of time for people to make up their minds,” she added.
Asked what she meant by “game changer” Ms McDonald said: “I mean a game changer. I mean match to the day. I mean, up for the match”.
The party leader said the aim was to get Fianna Fail and Fine Gael out of Government and to keep those parties out of the Áras.
Sinn Féin has been engaged in an internal process to decide how they would participate in the election, which Ms McDonald said included talking to many people, including Catherine Connolly’s campaign.
On Saturday, the party will set out the decision of the party, ” the logic and the intent of our position, and we’ll settle our campaigning agenda in the course of the presidential election”, she said.
With the party a large national organisation, Ms McDonald said their participation will be “very influential in this contest”.
Throughout the process, the party leader said she has had different opinions on what position the party should take.
“I think, like everybody in the party, I’ve at different points in time, had a firm view one way or the other. But I think now we are in Thursday, we’re at a point now where the decision is imminent, and certainly I know what I will be bringing forward,” Ms McDonald said.
Last week Ms McDonald ruled herself out as a potential candidate for the party and instead will focus on holding the Government to account.
“I am keenly conscious that we have made commitments to the Irish people, to sections of society that desperately need effective representation, and to those who believe that we can have government beyond Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and who see the merit in that, and we have to continue that work,” Ms McDonald said.
“That is my absolute priority. I don’t quit on things. I stick with them,” she adde
Tabitha Monahan