TÁNAISTE BRIAN Cowen cautioned against interpreting talks between Fianna Fáil and the SDLP as signs of a possible merger. Mr Cowen said that yesterday's breakfast meeting between Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and SDLP leader Mark Durkan was part of a Fianna Fáil consultation process on its future development.
The meeting had been organised by Louth TD Seamus Kirk and some SDLP councillors in Armagh and nobody should assume that it was necessarily going to lead to any kind of merger in the North, said Mr Cowen.
"There's a consultation process taking place generally as regards Fianna Fáil strategy for the future, including into how we might expand our organisation to the full island so that's where it's at at the moment and people shouldn't look too much into these things.
"As incoming leader of the party, I believe in the consultation process within the party. It's an internal party matter and my views remain there until we establish our policy position and then we let everybody know," he said.
Asked if the consultation process was to lead to some sort of agreement with the SDLP, a party with traditional links to the Labour Party in the Republic, the taoiseach-designate stressed that the process of consultation within the party was nowhere near completion.
"It's just an indication of the fact that in the post-Good Friday agreement world, now that we are seeking to establish political stability, there is a new dispensation and how politics evolve is something that we're all looking at and considering - there's no imminent decision," Mr Cowen said.
Appearing alongside Mr Durkan earlier at the Carrickdale Hotel, Dundalk, Mr Ahern said: "I think both of us want to see the politics of this island move on.
"It will be for others and not me to make the decisions on that but I certainly wish the process well. What I can say is that we have had the closest contacts for a long time with the SDLP.
"We have worked through thick and thin, through some very difficult days, some very arduous issues, some very tedious issues, but we worked together and I very much appreciate it."
Mr Durkan, who announced details of an internal working group on the party structure two weeks ago, said the political landscape was changing.
"Parties have choices to create and choices to make," he said.
