British and Irish governments need to work with common strategy for Stormont return, says Taoiseach

The British and Irish governments need to work with a common strategy to exert pressure for the return of the Stormont Assembly, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

Ireland’s premier said he regretted that the two governments had not worked more closely over the restoration of the powersharing institutions “for quite some time”.

Mr Varadkar also said he was hopeful that Stormont would return in the autumn, but conceded it was not an expectation at this stage.

The DUP collapsed the Stormont executive last year in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements created by the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The Windsor Framework struck by London and Brussels earlier this year sought to reduce the red tape on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK while maintaining the dual market access.

However, the DUP has insisted the new accord does not go far enough to address its concerns around sovereignty and the application of EU law in Northern Ireland, and the party is maintaining its blockade of Stormont until it receives further legal assurances from the UK Government.

Senior civil servants have been left running Stormont departments in the meantime.

Mr Varadkar said he intended to visit Northern Ireland for a round of meetings with political parties next month.

He said: “We’re still working as best we can with the British Government and the five main parties to have the Assembly and executive up and running in the autumn.

"One thing I’m saying very strongly to the British Government is that we need to have a common strategy, that we need to work hand in glove, that we need together to put pressure on the parties to come into government.

"We haven’t really had that approach for quite some time, I regret that we don’t.

"I’m continuing to say to our UK counterparts that the right way forward is an agreed strategy, hand in glove, hand in hand approach between the British and Irish governments, because that’s when Northern Ireland works best, when the British and Irish governments work together, and are honest brokers, and don’t particularly take the side of nationalism or the side of unionists, and I would like us to get back to that point.”

The Taoiseach said he would like to see the Stormont institutions up and running before an investment conference planned for Belfast in September and a British Irish Council meeting in Dublin in November.

He said: “I think it would be a shame if that wasn’t possible.

“I am also conscious as well that there are electoral cycles here. We have local European elections in June, there’s a British general election due next year as well.

"I think if we don’t kind of grab that window that exists in the autumn, there’ll be a tendency to say let’s wait until the elections are out of the way and that opportunity might be lost.

“I think that would be a real shame.”

Mr Varadkar said the Irish Government was not party to discussions taking place between the Westminster government and the DUP over post-Brexit trading concerns.

He said: “I do still hope that we’ll have the Assembly and executive up and running in September; it would certainly be nice to have it up and running for the investment conference.

"That would be a very positive thing if the Minister for the Economy, the Minister of Finance, the First Minister, deputy First Minister, can be there together, making the case for investment in Northern Ireland together.

"But there’s a difference between hope and expectation.

“I certainly do hope that we can have institutions up and running in September.

"I think it’s fair to say it’s not an expectation at this stage.”

He said he had sought assurances that any deal between the UK Government and the DUP would not undermine the Good Friday Agreement and the Windsor Framework.

"We have that assurance repeatedly, from the prime minister and the Secretary of State (Chris Heaton-Harris).”

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