DUBLIN (Reuters) – Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he does not expect a breakthrough in talks to restore Northern Ireland’s devolved government by September and urged the British government to work much more closely with Dublin to end the impasse.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) collapsed the devolved executive 17 months ago in protest at Britain’s first post-Brexit agreement with the EU and then rejected a fresh deal struck in February to end many of the new trade checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
The DUP, the UK-run region’s biggest pro-British political party, said last week that there had been no meaningful action from the British government on its demand for further measures to protect trade between Northern Ireland and Britain.
“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,” Varadkar, who had raised the prospect of a September breakthrough last month, told reporters.
“One thing I’m saying very strongly to the British government is that we need to have a common strategy on this and we haven’t really had that approach for quite some time, and I regret that we don’t. I continue to say to our UK counterparts that the right way forward is an agreed strategy.”
He added that if the deadlock was allowed to drift into next year, there is a risk the opportunity for agreement could be lost until after a British national election expected in 2024.
The British government has pledged to introduce laws to further protect trade with Northern Ireland and placate the DUP, but has not yet tabled any proposals.
Unlike the rest of the UK since Brexit, Northern Ireland has effectively remained in the EU’s single market to keep its land border with Ireland open, a major aspect of the 1998 Good Friday peace deal that ended decades of sectarian bloodshed.
Varadkar said Dublin has repeatedly received assurances from London that any such move would not result in changes to the revised EU-UK trade deal or undermine the Good Friday Agreement.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by Grant McCool)
