The following is the text of the statement issued yesterday evening by Mr Derek Nally:
"Sinn Fein poses people with moral as well as political problems. Like me, most Irish people would never vote for Sinn Fein, peace process or no peace process, because they have been carrying on a murder campaign for 25 years. One of their victims was Garda Gerry McCabe. That is why they get 2 per cent of the vote in the Republic.
"Mary McAleese seems to work on a different set of moral assumptions. A story in the Sunday Business Post carries a report of her conversation with a civil servant in Foreign Affairs in which she clearly comes across as sympathetic to Sinn Fein at a time when they were still carrying on terrorist activities, that is, the time of the British General Election.
"Take this sentence, from the confidential report, published by the Sunday Business Post: `She was very pleased with Sinn Fein's performance in the general election and confident they will be able to perform better in the local elections: she expects Mick Murphy, the Sinn Fein candidate in Rostrevor, her own constituency, to pick up a seat this time.'
"What meaning can be taken from this except that Mary McAleese supported Sinn Fein and not the SDLP going into the British General Election? Further, in talking about an electoral pact, she added that she would not be interested in any pact which did not include Sinn Fein.
"When asked about this by the Sunday Business Post Mary McAleese said she was `shocked at what she considered a private conversation being relayed back.' Not that she did not say it, but that she was shocked it came out.
"In the world I come from facts have a forensic meaning. The Sunday Business Post quoted fully from the memo. Did she say these things or not? If not, will she sue?
"Even if I was never in the race, and I read this report, I would have a prima facie suspicion that she was not a proper person to be President of the Irish Republic.
"Even allowing for spin and context they convey a clear picture of her politics. They are not my politics, nor the politics of most of our people in the Republic.
"Let me repeat, Sinn Fein poses a moral as well as a political problem. Most of our people will never vote for them on moral grounds.
"This memo, if it is accurate, shows that Mary McAleese works to a different moral agenda than most people in the Republic. Because if Mary McAleese thinks that it is all right to support Sinn Fein, then she does not understand this country."