MARY Lou McDonald has urged the Dublin government to convene a forum on Irish unity ahead of a border poll within the next five years.
Setting out her party’s priorities for the next decade, the Sinn Féin leader said “now is the time to prepare” as she predicted an end to partition.
Speaking to hundreds of delegates at the Sinn Féin ard fheis in Derry on Saturday night, Ms McDonald said there was "no contradiction” between supporting Irish unity and working to restore the Stormont institutions.
She said it was “unsustainable” to have no assembly and executive in the north and that Sinn Féin “stand ready” to negotiate the restoration of devolution.
The Dublin TD said her party was seeking a “government of respect and equality, leaving discrimination and exclusion to the past”.
“I challenge the DUP and both governments to step forward – to resolve the issues and get government back in action,” she said.
“We don’t need a drawn-out talks process. The issues have been well-rehearsed. We need a good faith, purposeful engagement by political unionism.”
The Sinn Féin leader described next month’s Westminster poll as a “defining election” and said her party would be standing on an “anti-Brexit platform”.
She described the DUP as the “architects and champions” of the UK’s bid to leave the EU, while defending her party’s abstentionist policy.
“No Irish elected representative can stop Brexit – that’s the fact,” she said.
“Rather than indulging in the politics of delusion and blind alleys, Irish elected representatives must act to protect Irish interests where it matters.”
Ms McDonald said Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had “abstained from the north for almost a hundred years”.
“We take no lectures from those parties who looked the other way, who opted out and who abandoned this part of Ireland."
Noting that “Brexit has changed everything”, the Sinn Féin leader said for the first time many people were “now considering their future in a united Ireland”.
“The Irish government and all who say that now is not the time to speak of unity are wrong,” she said.
“A referendum on unity will happen, as set out in the Good Friday Agreement. It is not a question of if, but a question of when.”
She said it was time to begin preparations for a border poll and Irish unity.
“The Irish government must convene an all-Ireland forum to map the transition to a united Ireland, to involve all the people, to plan for our economy and our public services’” she said.
“And then the referendum must happen in the next five years – let the people have their say.”
Ms McDonald also highlighted the “race against climate change”, saying Sinn Féin would create a “green new deal” that included “zero emissions targets” and “sustainable jobs”.
She also advocated an “Irish National Health Service”, cheaper childcare provision and the scrapping of third level education fees.
