Changing Sinn Féin’s policy on issues such as the Special Criminal Court is like “politics for slow learners” the Taoiseach said.
Leo Varadkar, speaking exclusively to the Irish Examiner in Iceland this week, said he would not discuss a coalition government with Mary Lou McDonald’s party regardless of the Dála bill after the next election.
Mr Varadkar said that while Sinn Féin’s development of the Special Criminal Court and the abandonment of promises to withdraw from the EU defence agreement Pesco and NATO’s Partnership for Peace were “welcome,” he said they were more fundamental, I have questions about the opposition party.
The Taoiseach stated that while he was speaking to Mary Lou McDonald about the North and various other issues, “we’re not going to talk about forming a coalition”, reports the Irish Examiner.
In Dail, earlier this month, the Taoiseach called on the Sinn Féin leader to answer questions about Sinn Fein’s “finances and links to organised crime. I’ve made that very clear — it’s not just about their past,” he told the Irish Examiner.
“There are [those] concerns that we have… but also about their economic and European policies in particular that we think will be major departure from what made our country successful — being pro-business, being pro-European, being pro-free trade. I do think the policy changes that they are making in recent times are significant,” he added, reports Irish Examiner.
“Watching Sinn Féin, it is like politics for slow learners sometimes. I think it was Seamus Mallon who famously described the Good Friday Agreement as Sunningdale for slow learners because Sinn Féin finally accepted democracy and peace and power sharing and consent,” reports Irish Examiner.
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