A FORMER Sinn Féin TD has voiced surprise that Mary Lou McDonald has not made a call for a border poll a red-line issue for future coalition talks.
With opinion polls indicating that Sinn Féin could be potential kingmakers in a hung Dáil, the party's leader said a unity referendum or preparations for reunification would not figure in any wish list ahead of joining or supporting a new government.
"I have not posited the border poll and the preparations for it as a red line", Ms McDonald told on RTÉ on Monday night.
"I am saying something much more important and that is that no responsible incoming government can continue to bury its head in the sand. The preparations need to start."
In the latest opinion poll, Sinn Féin has surged past Fianna Fáil, with a quarter of all those questioned saying they'd vote for the party.
The final survey of voters ahead of Saturday's general election put Fine Gael in third place on 20 per cent, Fianna Fáil on 23 per cent and Sinn Féin on 25 per cent.
As recent as last Friday, Ms McDonald had said a poll on Irish unity was not an “exotic red line” for Sinn Féin entering coalition government but “an absolute necessity” after Brexit.
In recent years with the UK's withdrawal from the EU said to be fuelling a growing desire for reunification, Sinn Féin has been to the fore in calling for a border poll, alongside urging the establishment of a Citizens Assembly to examine the case for united Ireland.
Ahead of the party's ard fheis in November, the Sinn Féin leader told The Irish News that there should be a border poll in three-to-five years and that formulating the shape of a potential new state should begin immediately.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín, a former Sinn Féin TD who left the party over its abortion policy, said he found it odd that his former colleagues would make no demand for a referendum or preparations for a united Ireland ahead of supporting a minority government.
"A border poll and the quest for a united Ireland is the raison d'être of many Sinn Féin activists, so it's strange that they would go through five years of government and not seek to make it a reality," the Meath West TD said.
"I can't believe it's a negotiable issue for Sinn Féin, especially when a vast majority of southerners support Irish unity and we're moving towards a similar situation north of the border."
