New team: Adams to lead Sinn Féin in Dáil

NEWLY ELECTED Louth TD and former Westminster MP Gerry Adams is to replace the Cavan-Monaghan TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin as leader of the Sinn Féin parliamentary party.

“Sinn Féin are here to do the business,” Mr Adams said at Leinster House yesterday, where he was accompanied by his party colleagues in the Dáil. “We have returned a very, very strong team. We trebled our vote and our representation here in Leinster House. We’re here to deliver: not just for the people who voted for us, but for all of the people of this State and across the island,” he said.

Commenting on the Fine Gael-Labour talks, he said: “This coalition which is forming is clearly going to be a coalition for cuts, supported by Fianna Fáil.

“Sinn Féin will be the only coherent voice of opposition and we will be a constructive opposition,” he added.

Mr Adams’s position as Dáil leader is subject to ratification by the party’s ardchomhairle. “The test of this government is whether it is going to reverse the awful economic misery that has been visited upon citizens, or continue with more of what Fianna Fáil gave us.”