Sinn Fein Ard Fheis, Gerry Adams TD, Mary Lou McDonald, Castlebar Mayo
There has been sharp criticism of the Government at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis this evening.
Deputy Leader Mary Lou McDonald told delegates at the Royal Theatre in Castlebar that the proposed extension to the Croke Park public service pay agreement was not the "stuff of reform".
Ms McDonald accused the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform of being the "boot boy of Labour, waving the stick".
She said Brendan Howlin's "bully boy tactics haven't worked so far" and added that "they are not going to work now".
The party has committed to abolishing the Local Property Tax if elected to Government.
Finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty said the party would introduce legislation next week to "scrap" the tax.
He said Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Dáil in the 90s that a property tax was morally unjust and unfair.
Mr Doherty acknowledged that the comments were made when there was no mortgage crisis, no personal debt crisis or unemployment crisis.
However, he said it was "all the more reason why Enda Kenny should hold on to his convictions".
Delegates will also discuss a border poll and the party's performance in government in Northern Ireland.
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Theresa Villiers hinted this week that funds from London might be curtailed if there is not more political progress.
Tomorrow morning's session will be televised live, as will the address of party leader Gerry Adams tomorrow night.
The North's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has acknowledged tensions within the Northern Executive between unionist and nationalist Ministers.
At the Sinn Fein ardfheis in Castlebar, Co Mayo tonight - the first to be held in Connacht - Mr McGuinness said that commentators "with some justification" were critical of the "lack of cohesion between unionist and republican Ministers". He did not mention First Minister Peter Robinson by name but it appeared clear he was also adverting to the DUP leader.
Mr McGuinness was critical of unionist Ministers in the Northern Executive and also complained that unionist politicians had failed to stand up to loyalist violence over the flags controversy and were failing to tackle the issue of parading.
"More than once in recent months the observation has been made to me that Sinn Féin Ministers are in government with unionist Ministers because we want to be, but that unionist Ministers are in government with Sinn Féin because they have to be," Mr McGuinness told delegates. "Speaking frankly this isn't good enough."
This week on the 15th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement Mr Robinson insisted that the 1998 accord was not the "template" for the current powersharing arrangements.
Again in an implicit criticism Mr McGuinness said tonight that political progress would be helped greatly "if some within unionism ended the pretence that they are not working the Good Friday agreement institutions".
"People need to be in government not because they have to be but because they want to be - and approach decision-making in that spirit," he said.
Continuing his criticism of his unionist partners in the Executive Mr McGuinness added, "I have no difficulty whatsoever in respecting Unionist's allegiance to their Britishness - but it gives me no satisfaction to tell you that there is a marked reluctance by unionist leaders to respect the Irish identity of nationalists and republicans."
Mr McGuinness said that the Belfast Agreement "while not a political settlement" was a "levelling of the political playing field in the North for the first time since partition".
He condemned the actions of dissident republicans, adding, "Whatever else about those groups responsible it is obvious that they have now been swamped by ruthless criminal elements with an island-wide network."
4Cavan-Monaghan TD Caoimhghin O Caolain said that Sinn Fein would continue to press for a Border poll on a united Ireland, stating that not only would such a referendum be held but that ultimately Irish "unity is going to happen".
The ardfheis is being held in Castlebar as part of Sinn Fein's policy of rotating the annual conferences between the four provinces.
