Two unionists have said that the comments made by Mary Lou McDonald in her interview with the Press Association show her party is not focussed on governing Northern Ireland properly.

David Brooks said that, instead, Sinn Fein is wedded to “pipe-dreams of constitutional change”, while Jim Allister said it shows her objective remains “the destruction of the UK”.

They were reacting to remarks from the Sinn Fein president in which she said the Dublin government should put pressure “on London to look constructively and to respond to the reality and the need for referendums”.

The text of the Good Friday Agreement states that “the Secretary of State shall exercise the power under paragraph 1 [to call a border poll] if at any time it appears likely to him that a majority of those voting would express a wish that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the United Kingdom and form part of a united Ireland”.

placeholder image — David Brooks, alongside Jim Allister, said that Mary Lou McDonald's comments serve to highlight that her focus is not on governing Northern Ireland properly, but on winning a border poll

East Belfast DUP MLA Mr Brooks said: “Rather than focus on cross-community consensus or the good governance of Northern Ireland, it’s no surprise that Sinn Fein have nothing else to offer other than pipe-dreams of constitutional change in their analysis of the Belfast Agreement.

"Such rhetoric, of course, is a useful distraction for the republican faithful from a party who have achieved nothing.

"Successive Sinn Fein Ministers have failed to deliver the A5 project and now we know the Economy Minister doesn’t even have a date for when her flagship ‘Good Jobs’ Bill will be drafted.

"Mary Lou McDonald would be better off managing her MLA team than offering advice to anyone else.”

And TUV MP for North Antrim Mr Allister said: “Mary Lou McDonald’s comments lift the lid on the Republican game plan.

"Sinn Fein are not in the business of delivering good government for Northern Ireland.

"Instead, they view the current arrangements as merely transitional – a staging post towards their ultimate objective of a border poll and the destruction of the United Kingdom, which, of course, some Unionists are foolishly aiding them with by partnering them in government.

“That said, the facts do not support Sinn Fein’s claim that the breakup of the UK is imminent.

"Current polling offers no such mandate.

"And as for talk of an ‘agreed Ireland’, it is deeply revealing that Ms McDonald refers to ‘the Brits’ as though they were some hostile foreign presence.

“The reality is that there are hundreds of thousands of people in Northern Ireland who not only see themselves as British, but who are British as a matter of law.

"There is plainly no place for such people in Sinn Fein’s vision of the future – and that truth should not be ignored.”