Northern Ireland border poll: TUV says prospect of Irish unification 'remote' after Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams slams Dublin for lack of plans

The party's leader, Jim Allister, was speaking after former Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said it “beggars belief” that the Irish Government has failed to plan for a united Ireland.

Mr Adams was appearing before the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement Committee on Thursday as one of the architects of the agreement.

He said the Irish Government's lack of action in preparing for a border poll is “incredibly short-sighted”.

“No Irish government, to this day, has produced a strategy to build a new and inclusive Ireland and give effect to Irish unity,” he told TDs and senators.

“Now there’s a mechanism to achieve this. The absence of Irish Government planning is indefensible. It’s incredibly short-sighted.”

He called on the Government to establish “a citizens’ assembly or a series of such assemblies” and then set a date for a referendum on the future, saying it “makes sense”.

He added: “Political parties which have enjoyed being in power in the State since partition don’t want to give up this power.

“That’s why our outgoing Taoiseach Micheal Martin refuses to establish a citizens’ assembly to plan for the future.”

Later he told committee members: “It just beggars belief… the main thing is that nobody wants, we certainly don’t want, a referendum just declared out of the blue.”

Responding to his comments, Jim Allister said: "It is telling that for all the propaganda about an all-Ireland being just around the corner, Adams realises that Dublin sees the prospect as so remote that it hasn't even made basic preparations.

“There is nothing in all that Adams says which addresses the practicalities of an all-Ireland. The reality is that he expects the people of Northern Ireland to give up their free-at-the-point-of-need NHS in order to join a Republic where it costs €65 to visit your GP, €100 to attend accident and emergency, surrender their personal tax free allowance and relinquish the block grant from Westminster.

"For all the hype about an all-Ireland being just around the corner the reality is that, as polling shows, people in Northern Ireland recognise that we are better off together with the other parts of the United Kingdom."