Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill declines to rule out presidential run
Northern Ireland
First Minister
Michelle O'Neill
has declined to rule out a
bid for the presidency
.
Asked on Friday if she was considering putting her name forward, Ms O'Neill replied: 'I am working my way through our deliberations as we speak.'
The
Sinn Féin
vice-president said the party had not finalised its deliberations on the subject.
'I think I've plenty to do, being First Minister,' Ms O'Neill said at a press conference in
Co Armagh
. 'But I would think the fact remains that I could stand for election, I could be elected as Uachtarán na hÉireann, but I can't vote in that election, so that's where there's a deficit and what we need to see is presidential voting rights extended to the North so the Irish citizens in the North can vote.'
READ MORE
Separately on Friday, former
SDLP
leader
Colum Eastwood
told the
BBC
that people had asked him to consider standing for the presidency. 'I'm going to take the time to think about it,' Mr Eastwood said.
While SDLP leader, Mr Eastwood was involved in talks with
Fianna Fáil
about closer co-operation between the parties, although no agreement was progressed. It is expected that should he run in the presidential election, it would be as a Fianna Fáil candidate.
Taoiseach
Micheál Martin
was asked if Mr Eastwood might stand on his party's behalf but he said there had been 'no contact with me' and 'no engagement that I'm aware of with Fianna Fáil'.
'It hasn't been on the agenda at all, I was surprised when I heard that this morning,' Mr Martin said.
[
Nobody wants the presidency and its €250k salary. Why?
Opens in new window
]
On Friday, Mr Martin, Tánaiste Simon Harris, and Cabinet members joined Ms O'Neill, Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister
Emma Little-Pengelly
, and members of the Stormont Executive for a plenary meeting of the
North South Ministerial Council
in Armagh.
Topics the meeting focused on included
US tariffs
and trade, potential co-operation on gender-based violence,
mother and baby institutions
and
Magdalene laundries
. It also addressed infrastructure projects and an air route between Derry and Dublin. .
Ministers also discussed the
redevelopment of Casement Park
GAA stadium in Belfast, a project currently facing a funding shortfall.
Last week the UK government said it would allocate £50 million (€59 million) to support the rebuild, with the Irish Government also set to contribute £50 million. However, even with other money from the GAA and Northern Ireland's Executive, the project is about £90 million (€105 million) short of what is required to develop a 34,000-seater stadium. A smaller ground could be built with the approximate £120 million available.
At a press conference following the meeting, the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and First Minister and Deputy First Minister were clear that now was the time to proceed.
'I think it is about not letting this moment pass,' Mr Harris said.
'Let's not look back in a number of years and see that this moment was squandered.'
The Taoiseach said it was 'very important the moment is seized, when significant amounts of money are now on the table, that the stadium can be built here and can be developed'.
Ms O'Neill said it was time for all partners involved to come together and find a way to start the work and complete the project.
Meanwhile, Ms Little-Pengelly rejected comments by former taoiseach
Leo Varadkar
to the BBC on Thursday that
Ireland was on a 'trajectory' towards unity
.
He said the most recent numbers show 'a very clear majority of younger people in Northern Ireland want there to be a new united Ireland'.
Ms Little-Pengelly said he was 'entitled to reinvent himself in whatever way he so chooses, but he is wrong in terms of the trajectory … I don't accept that it is an inevitability'.
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