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.”

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.

Labour has since said it will not go into government without another party of “shared values” joining it and some in the Social Democrats are understood to be cautious due to the Green Party’s recent wipeout in the election after almost five years in government.

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.”