Micheal Martin has said that he will not be supporting any proposals for Fianna Fail to end its partnership with the SDLP.
It comes as the party’s youth wing had passed a motion at its conference calling an end to the cross-border alliance.
The Taoiseach said this partnership, which was announced back in 2019, is “strong” and “will continue”. The status of it since it's formation, however, has been uncertain.
The president of Ogra Fianna Fail was asked to take the proposal to end the partnership to the party’s ruling body.
It followed claims of tensions between the two parties’ youth wings in the years since the alliance.
When asked by Belfast Live about the current status of the relationship and whether he would back any possible efforts at a future Fianna Fail ard fheis to end the collaboration, Martin said: “In relation to the SDLP, the relationship is strong and that relationship will continue.
"We will not be supporting any resolution at the ard fheis to in any way affect that or undermine that."
The comments came as the Taoiseach was speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg ahead of unveiling a sculpture honouring former SDLP leader John Hume.
The bronze bust of the Nobel laureate, a key architect of the Good Friday Agreement, marks his contribution during his 25 years as an MEP and the inspiration he took from the European project.
The Taoiseach said it was a privilege to unveil the artwork, adding: "I've been a long-time, all my life, an admirer of the work of John Hume.
"And of course his role as a European parliamentarian was so important in internationalising the issues in Northern Ireland.
“He did it in America and he did it here in Strasbourg and in Brussels, and he gave a powerful international voice for justice and for resolution, and for peace in Northern Ireland."
During the recent Stormont Assembly election campaign, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said voters had not asked about the party's partnership with Fianna Fail.
He defended the collaboration, arguing that it played a role in the Irish government setting up the multi-million-euro Shared Island Unit to boost north-south cooperation.
He added: "That was work that was done as a result of conversations that Micheal Martin and I had together.
"That's the legacy of those conversations and we're very proud actually that over the next five years you're going to see real change on the ground, cross-border, in border communities, because of the work we did there."
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