Taoiseach urges ‘hand in hand’ approach with British government to North

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that the Irish and British governments need to have a joint approach to Northern Ireland, adding that he regrets the lack of a “common strategy”.

He said that he hoped to see the Stormont institutions up and running this autumn, but warned that if the “window” is missed, elections in the UK and the Republic could mean the institutions remain suspended for a long time.

“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 before the investment conference that’s going to happen in Northern Ireland,” Mr Varadkar told journalists at a briefing in Government Buildings following the last Cabinet meeting before the summer break.

“It’d be a very positive thing if the minister for the economy, the minister for finance, the first minister, deputy first minister could be there together making the case for investment in Northern Ireland together.

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“But there’s a difference between hope and expectation. I can’t put a figure on it and I don’t want to but I certainly do hope that we can have the institutions up and running in September. I think it’s fair to say it’s not an expectation at this stage, any progress that has been made has been very, very slow.”

Mr Varadkar said that he was “saying very strongly to the British government ... that we need to have a common strategy on this, that we need to work hand in glove, that we need to together put pressure on the parties to come into government.”

“We have haven’t really had that approach for quite some time, and I regret that we don’t, and I continue to say to our UK counterparts that the right way forward is an agreed strategy, hand in hand approach with the British government, because that’s when Northern Ireland works best,” he said.

“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 unionism. And I’d like us to get back to that point.

“There is going to be a British-Irish Council here in Dublin in November, and I’d really like the first minister and deputy first minister to be there and I think it’d be a shame if that wasn’t possible.”

Mr Varadkar said that he intended to travel to Northern Ireland in early August for a round of meetings.