Northern Ireland

Arlene Foster says 'protest vote' benefited Sinn Féin in the Republic

The second day of counting in the Irish general election got underway yesterday. Picture by Yui Mok, Press Association
The second day of counting in the Irish general election got underway yesterday. Picture by Yui Mok, Press Association The second day of counting in the Irish general election got underway yesterday. Picture by Yui Mok, Press Association

ARLENE Foster has insisted that Sinn Féin's success in the Republic's general election was a "protest vote" over housing and health issues and not a reflection on support for a united Ireland.

The DUP leader said Irish unity and even Brexit had been dwarfed by other issues.

"What is very clear is that Brexit, which we were told is the issue of a generation, I think was registering at 1 per cent and even on a border poll the height of it is 57 per cent and this is the Republic of Ireland we are talking about," she said.

"I think we should realise that this has been about domestic policy and the fact that it was viewed that the government had failed on those issues and people wanted a change."

Mrs Foster acknowledged that young voters had not been affected by Sinn Féin's historic links to the IRA.

"It appears that younger voters are going to Sinn Féin because they are looking at them as the party that gives them something different than Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael and that's the reason why they voted for Sinn Féin. It's a protest vote, I think we should recognise that," she told the BBC.

The First Minister said talk of a possible Sinn Féin foreign minister, who could help influence the European Union's post-Brexit trade talks with the UK, was premature.

"We will of course deal with whoever is the Minister for Foreign Affairs, but we should not forget that the constitutional position of Northern Ireland is within the UK, that's why the person who comes from Dublin is the Minister for Foreign Affairs, because we are in a different jurisdiction," she said.

Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken said Sinn Féin had drawn its economic policies from "Venezuela and Cuba" and claimed the party had not been open about its links with the IRA.

"That there appears to be no party large enough to command the support for a majority government will face the Irish electorate with the choice between another potentially inconclusive election, or a coalition government between a centre right party, heavily leaning on international banking and FDI from the USA, and a hard left party, with a less than transparent relationship with its violent past, and whose economic and social policy influences are those of Venezuela and Cuba," he said.

"Our neighbours are living in interesting, if worrying times."

TUV leader Jim Allister claimed Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar was "reaping what he sowed".

Mr Allister claimed that Mr Varadkar's support for a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, which included Sinn Féin, meant that he had "validated and sanitised the party of the IRA".

"Likewise, by the DUP making Sinn Féin’s elevation into Stormont government possible, they short-sightedly endorsed them as a party fit for government. Now Ireland, north and south, is blighted with their growth," he said.

Mr Allister said the rise of Sinn Féin in the Republic will give unionists "even more reason to be opposed to an all-Ireland, but it should give the lead party of unionism cause for thought".