Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

It is too early to make a judgment on that matter. The position in the talks was that one party wanted to have an election. Other parties did not want an election or a referendum. If the issue came down to having to have an election — the larger parties would have the right to seek it and the other parties would accept that — and a larger party wanted it, I believe the two larger parties would accept that they would have an election. During the talks and discussions I argued that it is not necessary. If people insist that it is, it has its own difficulties but if there must be an election, we must have it.

An alternative suggested was that there could be a referendum. If there is a referendum, the issue is that it should be held on both parts of the island because that was the issue for the Good Friday Agreement in the first place. It will not be clear until the final legislative measures are cleared, if we get to that, hopefully on 21 November. It is too early to say what will happen. The main party is still insisting that it would prefer an election.

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