Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will resist the temptation to use this debate as an opportunity to vent my views on Sinn Féin. I will not do that. My views on Sinn Féin are well known and I am sure their views on me are also well known.

This is a serious motion and I am surprised that the Chamber is less peopled not only by Sinn Féin but also one or two other groups that are vocal on most issues. They are disappointingly absent here tonight.

Money and politics have a fraught relationship at the best of times. No political party is as pure as the driven snow and there have been well-documented incidents of less than appropriate behaviour in receiving funding for elections and so on in my party and others. When the average member of my party thinks about fundraising, he or she thinks about standing outside the local church on wet, wintery days, taking up a national collection. He or she thinks of going door to door to the party faithful, selling a raffle ticket at Christmas or perhaps trying to get money into our super draw once a year. I have organised nights at the dogs, the races and every other thing because I am useful at fundraising and make myself useful.

Sinn Féin missed the opportunity of the century when it received this extraordinarily strange windfall. Its representatives could have said to themselves that it was not right for them to accept it, north or south of the Border. This was their opportunity, if they mean what they say, to forgo that windfall and say they are not going to be seen in any way to endanger the democratic process on this island and to reject the dangers that such a sum of money presents not only to themselves but to the body politic. Did they make that choice? They did not. They took the seedy option of pretending that the money was really for Sinn Féin in the North, where there are, unfortunately, no consequences for accepting such a huge amount of money. That money would skew any election. I know what it costs to run a general election campaign. Our party is in significant debt at the moment after the most recent election, as, I am sure, are the other major parties represented here other than Sinn Féin. It is awash and knee-deep in money. Money has become a huge part of the raison d'êtreof Sinn Féin. Is it receiving these funds by way of small donations from the ordinary man on the street? Of course not. If it were, I would take my hat off and respect it. There was considerable spending around the election in America and Joe Biden, thankfully, made use of his huge coffers but that money, in the main, came from smaller donations across the board. Sinn Féin talks the talk but will never walk the walk.

Like the Cathaoirleach, I have worked with Sinn Féin representatives at local level in Kerry and many of them are personable, decent individuals. There are also decent individuals from Sinn Féin in both Houses of the Oireachtas. However, when it comes to the national issue, Sinn Féin Inc. in its latest manifestation, of which there have been many, is a threat to this State. I honestly believe that and would not say it if I did not believe it. Sinn Féin wants to subvert this State. It has tried to do so time and time again. I am old enough to remember when Jack Lynch and Des O'Malley had to have round-the-clock protection because of death threats to them from Sinn Féin-IRA.That was not all that long ago.

Senator McDowell spoke eloquently about what the Good Friday Agreement had given us - thankfully, a valuable type of peace in the North. It has not given us normality or a normal society, though. Nor will there ever be a normal society as long as one group is consistently posing a threat to the way of life of another. Nationalists were on the receiving end of that type of bullying throughout the 1960s. John Hume, Austin Currie, Seamus Mallon and others picked up the cudgels that were used against them, but their best efforts were interrupted and sidelined by the men of violence, who had no support from the people. I had to laugh when I saw Sinn Féin people on social media glorifying their wonderful election result - more luck to them on the great result they got - and how they were flying in the polls. What interest had Sinn Féin in polls when the IRA was murdering people morning, noon and night in the North and when it was robbing banks and shooting gardaí and Army personnel in the South? They did not have even 5% of the people's support, but they did not give a damn. It did not matter. They are different that way.

I will go back to the basics and say what I started with. I appeal to Senator Ó Donnghaile. It is not too late to refuse the money. What does Sinn Féin want it for? It has enough. It should fight its elections like the rest of us - on its feet with the support of the people. If Sinn Féin gets the support of the people, I will be the first to say "Good luck on getting elected". It is on a figure of 30% or so at present. Its members have lost the run of themselves. Adolf Hitler got into power with a similar vote. We will not be so foolish down here.

I will appeal to the Senator on another matter. When he and his colleagues are referring to this body down here, we are not a "state". This is the Republic of Ireland, and I am proud to say I am a member of that Republic. When people of his party, in the hot flush of an election, start saying "Up the Ra" and "We broke the Free State", it will be remembered long after the shouting and celebrations in Waterford are forgotten. I appeal to the Senator to use his good offices and refuse this money. Do the decent thing. Stop trying to fool the people that Sinn Féin is a Northern Ireland party when it suits it and a Southern Ireland party at other times. Hand back that money. It will do Sinn Féin no good, and I cannot see any good use to which it could be put.