Fianna Fáil would not run candidates in House of Commons elections if it set up in Northern Ireland, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, predicted yesterday.
The party has decided to begin a year-long debate to decide whether it should operate in Northern Ireland and, if so, in what way.
The issue has featured prominently during party ardfheiseanna in recent years and the development will be strongly backed by the organisation, senior Fianna Fáil figures insist.
Yesterday, both Mr Ahern and the Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, quietly disagreed with Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey's criticism of the move.
Asked if he understood Mr Empey's fears, Mr Cowen said: "No, I don't, to be honest. I don't see what the major problem might be. We are a democratic party, which has contributed a lot in the Republic.
"We are now in a new dispensation in the North, a new politics. We are very clear about our republican ideals. We believe in seeking to promote the unity of Ireland by agreement and by consent. It isn't a threatening position to anybody. We respect different traditions on the island of Ireland," he said in Wicklow.
Describing Mr Empey's reaction as "over the top", Mr Ahern said Fianna Fáil's growth in Northern Ireland, if sanctioned, is not something "that is going to happen overnight". It had not sought to operate there during the Troubles because it did not want to split the nationalist vote, and later because of the peace process, he said.
"After May 8th there seems to us to be no real logic as to why we shouldn't look across the Border when you look at the aims of our party.
"The primary aim of our party is the unification of our country. There is no logic why we shouldn't now given the fact that we were the leading movement in this country to bring an end to violent nationalism," said Mr Ahern.
"Nobody, including Reg Empey, should see it in any way as muddying the pitch. I think it is a logical extension of where we are as a party and where we are dealing on a one-to-one basis with members of the Executive," he said.
Asked to outline his own ambitions for the project in a decade's time, Mr Ahern said he would like to see the party having by then an organisation across 32 counties.
But this could be achieved in a number of ways, he cautioned: "How that is to manifest itself would be left up to the organisation to decide and how fast that would take place.
"There have been suggestions that we should form 'Friends of Fianna Fáil' in NI; give people party membership; set up forums . . . But there is no doubt that after some time people mightn't necessarily be content with going to meetings . . .
"People may want ultimately to contest elections. The issue is whether we would contest Westminster elections. In my view, I wouldn't envisage that.
"Personally, I wouldn't see us contesting. Our focus has to be on the 32 counties. If we are to be true to the founding fathers of our party, that is what we should be concentrating on," he said.
Government Chief Whip Tom Kitt said he thought developing Fianna Fáil in the North was "timely" but it would have to be thought out "very carefully".
FF and SDLP see mutual advantage in cautious waltz: page 16
