Sinn Fein ‘actively preparing’ for Irish general election

Sinn Fein’s president Mary Lou McDonald said the party is ready for an election in Ireland (Brian Lawless/PA)

Sinn Fein is “actively preparing” for the next Irish general election, the party president has said.

There is speculation that Taoiseach Simon Harris could call the election for the autumn but the term can continue until next spring.

It comes as the coalition government parties were buoyed after a better-than-anticipated result in the recent European and local government elections.

Sinn Fein made modest gains in the elections but did not realise its ambitions.

Speaking in Belfast on Wednesday, Sinn Fein president Mary-Lou McDonald said the party is actively preparing for an Irish general election.

“In any electoral cycle, and over a number of years, the public mood shifts and changes,” she said.

“We are now actively preparing for a general election south of the border,” she told her party’s manifesto launch for the UK General Election in west Belfast.

“We’re not through this election, and we’re planning for the next, and we will prove a formidable force, and I can say – not with any level of personal arrogance – that I know our activist base and I know how determined we are and I know the huge opportunity that is out there for us to drive progress forward for Ireland, and we are going to grab that opportunity with both hands.”