SINN FÉIN have called for a referendum on Irish Unity by the year 2025.
Speaking at the party's candidate launch in Dublin's Mansion House, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald acknowledged that today marks 101 years since Ireland's first Dáil met for the first time in the same room, saying that Sinn Féin would finish the work started over a century ago.
She condemned her party being excluded by RTÉ and Virgin Media in the upcoming leaders' debates "despite this party being the most vibrant force for positive change in Ireland".
In outlining the party's policies, Ms McDonald pledged that Sinn Féin would "put money back in people's pockets".
They would, she said, restore the retirement age to 65, freeze rents, end the hospital trolley crisis and work towards the creation of an Irish National Health Service.
The Sinn Féin party leader also called for an Irish Unity referendum by the year 2025, alongside a Green New Deal "to win the race against climate change".
"Irish Unity is the best idea for the future of our country," Ms McDonald said.
"The story of Ireland for the next decade will be shaped by the path to unity and the fight against climate change. Two seismic shifts which will create profound change in all of our lives.
"I believe that these changes can be positive but only if we act now, only if we prepare now.
"Irish Unity and a Green New Deal for Ireland must be at the centre of everything we do.
"The unification of our country and action on climate change can be the bedrock upon which we build a new, equal and prosperous Ireland.
"Let’s have an All-Ireland Forum on Unity to plan for all aspects of reunification, including a referendum by 2025."
To the people as-yet undecided of who to vote for in the General Election, which will take place on February 8, Mary Lou McDonald said:
"We say simply – give us a chance.
"The others have had theirs."
