Gerry Adams: SF successor to be announced on Monday

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has said Martin McGuinness is not retiring, he is just standing down from office for health reasons and he hopes that he will be back.

Mr Adams said the former Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister intends to continue as best he can and “hopefully in the fullness of health, he’ll be back with the rest of us, moving forward against the consequences of Brexit, facing up to the bad policies of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael”.

Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness resigned as deputy first minister earlier this month after DUP leader Arlene Foster refused to step aside temporarily to allow for an investigation into the ‘cash for ash’ scheme.

Mr Adams told RTE’s News at One that the party “will consult with our Ard Comhairle over the weekend we will make the announcement of Martin’s successor on Monday.

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Tributes paid to Martin McGuinness on retirement

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“We’re not replacing Martin, he’s irreplaceble but the new person coming into the job needs to be able to put his or her mark on that job within our general reconciliation towards unity, making sure the institutions work for everybody.”

On the issue of his own retirement, he added: “Martin made it clear and I said it publicly last year that we are a party in transition and that means a change in leadership, but I think one big announcement at the beginning of the year – and that wasn’t planned, Martin’s illness intruded and that’s the way life is at times.”

He added that the British government doesn’t want to handle the issues of equality and fairness.” The Irish government needs to be all the time briefed fully on what it needs to do in terms of keeping the British government right. It’s a big challenge.”