Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am supporting this motion and very much commend Senator Ward for bringing it forward. The claiming and taking of this money is a statement of sheer hypocrisy from a party that champions a 32-county island and claims it is the only all-Ireland party. It talks about unity and what its representatives stand for. They wrap themselves in the Tricolour at every possible opportunity. Sinn Féin had seats at a time when Ireland needed voices on the floor of the House in Westminster but its representatives refused to take an oath of allegiance to the crown and all that goes with that. At the same time, the party was happy to apply the rules of the crown when it came to making sure that they get to hold onto the money while using and abusing the fact that it operates in two jurisdictions and that the rules are different in the North. Sinn Féin is not adhering to the content of the will as was put before it. It chose to circumvent that.

This is about democracy for all of us. We have all gone through the painstaking effort of ensuring we are within the SIPO rules by making sure that we file our returns properly, keep our receipts and do everything we can because we believe in a democracy of equals. Everyone here can approach and stand for public office on the basis that they know the rules, play by the same rules and respect each other. We may disagree on policy but we respect each other.

All across this House and the Dáil, there is a nasty social media campaign where discourse is lowered to the lowest common denominator. It is akin to the stories that we hear and the testimonies that come out of the experience of Cambridge Analytica. We cannot be assured that moneys received by Sinn Féin are not being used to influence public thinking in a way that means members of the public are not even aware their thinking is being changed. We cannot be assured that social media discourse is not being abused and used by Sinn Féin using this money. It needs to return the money and stand up with integrity, if that is possible, and in so doing ensure it is adhering to the rules of the Republic of Ireland that it claims to support and promote.