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Mary Lou McDonald pledges to stick around as Sinn Féin leader for next five years
McDonald said Sinn Féin were ready to fight their voters’ corner in the Dáil.
5.49pm, 4 Dec 2024
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MARY LOU MCDONALD has said she intends to lead Sinn Féin for the entirety of the next Dáil term and into the next general election.
Speaking ahead of the first parliamentary party meeting at Leinster House in Dublin, McDonald simply responded “yes” when asked if she plans to stay as the President of the political party for the next Dáil term.
Sinn Féin has let the dust settle after the general election and have seemingly accepting that it will remain in opposition for this Dáil term. McDonald today pledged to fight their voters’ corner in Leinster House.
“We take very seriously our duty, on behalf of everybody who voted for us, to go in and be in their corner,” she told reporters. “We’ll do the very best job that we can to put the [next] government under pressure.”
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Sinn Féin plan to approach the Social Democrats and Labour, two groups it claims share similar political values to the party, in order to form that opposition. The two parties were previously seen as Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’s preferred third coalition partner.
It is therefore increasingly likely that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will approach a small number of independent TDs.
Speaking to this point today, McDonald urged Labour, the Social Democrats and “any independent worthy of the name independent” not to enter into coalition with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
“We don’t need five more years of what we have witnessed,” she said. “That would be my advice to them – whether they will listen to us or not is an entirely different matter.
“What we do know is we will be up-and-at-it. We are up-and-at-it now, and whoever the incoming taoiseach is, just be aware we are coming after you.”
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Good to hear this. I spoke to several Ukrainians last week who were college students at home and would like to study here but didn’t know how to go about it. Hopefully there are similar information sessions in different parts of the country as the refugees are well spread out.
@Gerry McCaughey: don’t suppose by any chance you’ve had time to ask them where they will be accomodated while they take up thos great opportunity? Because my kids going to college can’t get accomodation?
@Patricia O’Brien: one of the girls I spoke to was being accommodated by the family of her Irish friend who have been so good to her. I saw videos she took on her phone that make what we saw in Bucha seem mild. The rest were all being housed in a hotel in the town I was working in that day which I won’t name. All I’m sure would rather be in their home country worrying about boys and grades than worrying about which of the family members they had to leave behind they might not see again. Puts a perspective on things, don’t you think?
@Gerry McCaughey: I wont apologose for being pissed off with the housing or accomodation situation in this country, there are families who have been in hotels and b and bs for years, silently waiting for housing, constantly overlooked, with kids who have NO chance of going to college, so spare me the smug comments, pity u don’t have the same compassion for those people… but then it’s fashionable to get involved in ukraines war but not so fashionable to be concerned about whats been going on on your own door step.
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