(Seo alt ónár bhfoireann Gaeltachta. Is féidir an bunleagan as Gaeilge a léamh anseo)

SINN FÉIN LEADER Mary Lou McDonald has harshly criticised the way the Taoiseach, on a TG4 broadcast, has played down her party’s efforts to push for a referendum on a united Ireland.

According to McDonald, Micheál Martin’s remarks on the TG4 current affairs programme 7 Lá were “completely out of step” with the ‘political reality across the island’, and she dismissed his statement, suggesting that her party’s campaign lacked substance. She also alleged that the Government was not prepared to take a leading role “on the most important constitutional issue in the country”.

“Irish unity is not just a ‘campaign’. It is a democratic objective enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement,” McDonald said.

“It is rooted in the experience of people across the island who are demanding better public services, economic opportunities, political stability and a future free from division.”

The Government has a responsibility to prepare for constitutional change, but it has yet to fulfil that duty.

During the interview, the Taoiseach referred to the Shared Islands Initiative that has been underway during his tenures as Taoiseach and described it as “the most important initiative since the Good Friday Agreement to move unity forward”.

“We need to bring people together and, for example, we are now close to completing the bridge at Narrow Water,” he said, referring to the bridge across Carlingford Lough that connects Narrow Water in County Down and Omeath in County Louth.

However, the Sinn Féin leader said that while community links and reconciliation were important and that it was positive that a bridge was being built at Caol Uisce/Narrow Water, it was not a strategy for constitutional change.

“Cultural exchanges and poetry readings are no substitute for serious preparation.,” she said.

The Shared Island initiative, while useful in parts, is not a plan for unity.  It does not address the core questions of healthcare, taxation, public services, rights protections or economic transition in a new Ireland.  These are the issues that require detailed, structured planning now – not in some vague future beyond 2030

She also said she did not accept that it would be ‘premature’ – as the Taoiseach had claimed – to hold a referendum by 2030.

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“There is a clear and democratic path in the Good Friday Agreement – no Taoiseach should rule that out as politically inconvenient.”

McDonald said there had to be consensus to achieve unity, with peaceful and democratic means and safeguards in place and assured for all traditions.

“The question is not whether there is substance behind the union, the question is why the Government is not providing this substance.”

The Sinn Féin leader added that her party would not be swayed by ‘the complacency of coming to terms with reality’ even if the Government was not prepared to recognise that the conversation about union was well underway across the island.

The Journal’s Gaeltacht initiative is supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme