Fianna Fáil to consider a proposal to terminate the SDLP Partnership

Ireland’s government party Fianna Fáil is considering a proposal to formally end its partnership with the SDLP.

The two sides announced a cross-border alliance in 2019, but the partnership’s status has not been clear since then.

Youth winger Fianna Fail has petitioned to hold a conference in Kodonegal over the weekend to demand the termination of the partnership.

The petition asked Ogra Fiana to submit the proposal to the party’s board of directors.

“This conference calls for the termination of the partnership between the SDLP and Fianna Fáil and obliges the incoming president to present a proposal to that effect at the upcoming Ard Comhairle meeting,” it reads.

The motion, put forward by Kildare North members, received 20 to 14 votes.

This would follow allegations of tension between the youth wings of the two parties in the years following the partnership.

Fianna Fáil and SDLP have been contacted for comment.

The proposal comes just days after Taoiseach leader Michelle Martin and Fianna Fáil met SDLP leader Colom Eastwood during a visit to Derry.

Mr. Eastwood has previously praised the partnership, claiming it played a role in creating a multi-million dollar island government unit to promote North-South cooperation.

“It was a political partnership aimed at trying to change people’s lives,” he said last month.

Let me give you clues as to what happened as a result. There is a billion euros in a bank account in Dublin that will be spent by the total unit of the island.

“It was the result of the conversation I had with Michelle Martin. And if it was the result of this partnership, I would be happy enough.”

But Mr Eastwood said that while his party has a “strong” relationship with the Fianna dossier, it also has the support of the political divide in the republic.

Fianna Fáil’s SDLP and All-Island Partnership initially focused on solving Brexit and restoring a Stormont-based government in the wake of the RHI scandal.

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The two parties also sought to work together to “provide greater research, electoral and organizational capacity.”

But not much is seen about the partnership in the coming years.

Party sources consider calls to end cooperation an unwelcome time for the DDP during the assembly’s current election campaign.

They believe the proposal could eventually be extended to Fianna Vail’s broader membership at its next annual conference.

Some Fianna Fáil politicians, such as TD Jim O’Callaghan, plan to help the SDLP campaign ahead of the Stormont poll in May.

However, the Social Democratic Party also had the support of representatives of other parties in the Republic of Ireland.

Fine Gael TD Neil Richmond piloted SDLP candidates in South Belfast and Stanford counties.