Simon Coveney: ‘We hope new PM steps aways from unilateral action on Northern Ireland Protocol’

Speaking in Belfast, Mr Coveney said: “We’ll work with whoever the new leader is, whoever the new Prime Minister is.

“Of course, we hope that the new Prime Minister won’t pursue a strategy of breaking international law and breaking their word to Ireland and the EU.”

His remarks came after the House of Commons passed legislation last night that will enable the UK Government to override those elements of the Protocol regarded as a threat to Northern Ireland’s place in the Union.

The Bill will now undergo scrutiny in the House of Lords before it is finally given royal assent.

Mr Coveney said he hoped relations with the new Prime Minister would improve Anglo-Irish relations, and that issues surrounding the Protocol could be dealt with “in a different way.”

The Irish Foreign Minister met with all the main Stormont parties except the DUP whom Mr Coveney said “in fairness” was due to other diary commitments and its leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson being in London today.

He declined to say which of the two Tory leadership candidates - Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak - he preferred.

On the overall EU attitude to the new Prime Minister, Mr Coveney added: “I think there is a sense in Brussels now that they want to wait for a new Prime Minister to be in office in number 10 Downing Street. And I think there is certainly, a willingness to try and work towards a new start, if you like, in relations between the British Government and the EU. And certainly that’s the case from Dublin.”

The DUP has said it hopes to meet Mr Coveney at a later date.

Among those who did meet Mr Coveney was the Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie.

Mr Beattie said that while they had a “good catch up” he told Mr Coveney that “nothing had changed” regardings Unionists opposition to the Protocol.