Fianna Fáil must play an active role on the ground in Northern Ireland, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said, though the party has not decided if it will ever contest elections there.
Launching a year-long party debate on the issue yesterday, he said: "We will move to develop a strategy for organising the party on a 32-county basis. We are launching the discussion process for that," he said.
Speaking during a two-day parliamentary party meeting in Druids Glen, Co Wicklow, Mr Ahern was cautious about the scale of the party's ambitions: "Don't presuppose that we will run for elections, or what we will do. We will take our time about this." He went on: "We are not going to make any decisions overnight on this.
"It is an important decision for us, but it is our view in the changed situation that we could and that we should develop our all-Ireland strategy. As Eamon de Valera said in his very first ardfheis, Fianna Fáil is a 32-county party. A lot of things have got in the way."
The internal party debate will be led by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern and every part of the organisation is to be asked to consider the issue carefully.
Asked if Fianna Fáil candidates could one day contest the Westminster elections, he said: "We will take this step by step and plan it out. I don't want to be writing the conclusions of the committee before the committee starts."
Asked if Fianna Fáil should run alongside the SDLP, or merge with it, the Taoiseach would only say: "The SDLP are having their own debate on these issues. We see the SDLP as friends of ours.
"We are already working actively with many groups and organisations in Northern Ireland."
Replying to questions, the Taoiseach said: "We are conscious that ultimately 2016 moves upon us. It won't be too long upon us. We want to move with our Northern friends; nationalists, republicans, unionists, loyalists, to make this a better island and Fianna Fáil as a republican party, the biggest republican party, wants to be at to the forefront of doing that in the years ahead. We can't do that if we don't play a role, an active role in Northern Ireland." But he said a decision by Fianna Fáil to operate on the ground politically in Northern Ireland should not be seen by anyone as threatening.
"Our first aim as a Fianna Fáil organisation is the national reunification of the entire island by peaceful means, based on the principle of consent.
"We have long accepted that that cannot be done in the short- term; that it has to be done by working the structures of the Good Friday agreement.
"We don't see it as pushing an agenda, other than that there are many things that we can do on an all-island basis that make absolute sense," he told reporters.
Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris welcomed the Fianna Fáil move, claiming the party was following Sinn Féin's lead.
"It is nearly 10 years since the Good Friday agreement was endorsed by the people of the island and signed by the 26-county government," said Mr Ferris.
"It is regretful that it has taken Fianna Fáil so long to embrace the positive aspects of developing its party throughout the 32 counties, but we are encouraged that the Taoiseach has finally acknowledged the importance of such a move.
"It is encouraging that the Fianna Fáil leadership is finally incorporating an all-island agenda into its political priorities and strategies for the forthcoming Dáil term. Sinn Féin has long argued the social, economic and political benefits of a broad all-island agenda."
