Taoiseach Simon Harris hails impact of Stormont return on first official visit to Northern Ireland

Taoiseach Simon Harris hailed the impact of the return of the powersharing institutions at Stormont as he began his first official visit to Northern Ireland. Mr Harris met with Stormont leaders on Friday morning for talks focused around areas of shared economic collaboration. However, Northern Ireland’s deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said she had raised concerns that relations between unionists and the Taoiseach’s office had not always been good in the past. Mr Harris’s visit to Stormont Castle had an unpromising start when First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Ms Little-Pengelly were not outside the building to officially welcome him as his car arrived. After standing at the bottom of the steps for a few moments, Mr Harris then entered the building only to emerge shortly after with the two Stormont leaders to pose for photographs. After a meeting lasting just short of an hour, they emerged again and Mr Harris praised the “incredible leadership” of Northern Ireland’s First and deputy First Ministers during a brief press conference at which there was limited scope for the media to ask questions. He said: “It has been a really good engagement. “I was eager to get here in the early stages of my tenure as Taoiseach because we now have institutions back up and running in the north. “I am very grateful to the First Minister and deputy First Minister for the incredible leadership they are showing in the political environment in terms of trying to deliver for people and I’m extraordinarily pleased the Irish Government is in a position to work, where appropriate, on a range of issues. “I think we have an impressive list of areas where we are now actively co-operating and collaborating in.” Powersharing returned in Northern Ireland in February following a 24-month hiatus. Mr Harris was elected as Ireland’s youngest ever Taoiseach last month. Ms O’Neill said there were many areas of shared collaboration, over the planned new A5 road project, which the Irish Government will partially fund. She said: “I am very glad he has taken the opportunity to be here early in his tenure to talk about the areas of shared collaboration, partnership working, particularly around areas that the Irish Government have already identified, particularly around the Shared Island Fund. “A good opportunity to again underline our commitment to the A5, particularly given the week that’s been and two more young people tragically losing their lives on that very dangerous stretch of road. “Clearly a lot of areas of opportunity for advancement, particularly now that we have the north-south ministerial bodies back up and working again.” She added: “We talked about some of the those areas of economic development, we talked about the opportunities we have in terms of pursuing a lot of these big infrastructure projects.” The DUP’s Ms Little-Pengelly said: “We highlighted the fact that perhaps relationships, particularly between unionism and the Taoiseach’s office have not always been good in the last number of years. “But we look forward to building a more positive relationship, an engagement which is based with respect to that stranded approach in respect with the internal issues of Northern Ireland are those for the Government of Northern Ireland and for the United Kingdom. “But of course there are areas of mutual interest where we can work together. “Those are set out in terms of the areas of co-operation. “But there will be other areas where we will want to engage and the best way to do that is with that respect and also in building those positive relationships. “The Republic of Ireland is our closest neighbour and of course we want to be good neighbours and have those positive working relationships.” Mr Harris then moved to Parliament Buildings where he was welcomed by Edwin Poots, the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly before holding talks with Stormont party leaders. Afterwards, Alliance party leader Naomi Long said she raised the need for reforms of the Stormont institutions to remove the ability for any one party to collapse the institutions in the future. “I’m very conscious always of the vulnerability of the institutions,” she said. Ms Long expressed concern that “complacency” would emerge around the issue of reform now that powersharing was back up and running. The East Belfast MLA also raised the recent diplomatic tensions between the UK and Ireland over migration issues. She described the spat over the Rwanda scheme as a bit of a “phoney war” and also appeared to question the basis for the claim that 80% of asylum seekers recently arrived in the Republic of Ireland had entered from Northern Ireland. “These aren’t figures that we would recognise,” Ms Long said, as she stressed the need for clarity on the numbers. She added: “Whilst we’re not responsible for migration in Northern Ireland (the Home Office is), we do have an ethical and moral obligation to look after people who are within our remit and in our jurisdiction.” UUP leader Doug Beattie described his discussions with Mr Harris as “friendly”. “It really was a bit of a grip and grin meeting just to sort of say hello to each other,” he said. Mr Beattie said he pressed Mr Harris to do more on issues around the legacy of the Troubles, including setting up a public inquiry in Ireland into the Omagh bomb of 1998. The UUP leader insisted there was no need for any “reset” of relations between his party and the Irish Government, insisting that the relationship had “never faltered”. “Our relationships have been strong all along,” he said. “We’ve continued to meet, we’ve continued to have good dialogue, we’ve continued to express concerns. That’s what good neighbours do. If we have concerns, we should be able to openly and respectfully express them and we’ve always had that. So, where some people might need to reset their relationship with the Irish Government, that’s for them, but certainly as a leader of the Ulster Unionist Party I think our relationships remain strong.” SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said much of his discussions with Mr Harris concentrated on migration. He said the Taoiseach made it “very clear” that an open border on the island of Ireland was “non negotiable”. Mr Eastwood said the “noises” coming from the UK Government over migration and Ireland were primarily motivated by a desire to shore up its support in the local and general elections. “One thing that I think unites lots of people in the north of Ireland is the need to get rid of this Tory Government, so the sooner they call that election the better,” he added. The Taoiseach left Stormont for a working lunch with business stakeholders prior to a scheduled engagement at the Duncairn arts centre focused on the achievements in reconciliation and community development work of the 174 Trust, through disability, arts, women and pre-school groups. Its projects have been recipients of the Reconciliation Fund and Shared Island Creative Ireland programmes of the Government of Ireland. That visit came ahead of a final engagement at Queen’s University Belfast for a meeting with academics involved in ongoing all-island research, including on cancer care, sustainable energy and resilient food systems and others co-funded by programmes resourced through the Irish Government’s Shared Island Fund.

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