DUP tells Leo Varadkar that Good Friday Agreement clearly says UK is still sovereign over Northern Ireland

DUP MLA Emma Little Pengelly responded that the Belfast/GoodFriday Agreement states that the internal matters of Northern Ireland and issues of governance and sovereignty “remain matters entirely for the UK”. She added: “This should be respected by the Taoiseach and everyone else.”

When Leo Varadkar expressed regret that the NI Protocol was imposed on NI without the support of unionists he appeared to accept that, she said. However, restoring the assembly can only happen when NI’s position within the UK is “both respected and protected in law,” she added.

UUP MLA Dr Steve Aiken said the taoiseach’s commentary was “to say the least, unhelpful” but that many people familiar with his language were “unsurprised by his rather tin-eared approach”.

Whilst the Taoiseach expressing his aspirations to a “highly improbable” united Ireland are legitimate, he added, “to do so when we are trying to re-establish the Northern Ireland Assembly appears to be, to say the least, undiplomatic”.

He also accused Mr Varadkar of “trying to steal the PR ground” from the Northern Ireland Office during a joint UK-EU funding announcement on Monday, further underlining how NI is “just a political football” in the Taoiseach’s thinking.

TUV leader Jim Allister also accused the Taoiseach of breaching the Good Friday Agreement. “Whether it’s Varadkar or (Tanaiste) Micheal Martin, both demonstrate that, for all their pretence of respect for the Belfast Agreement, they patently disregard the supposed sanctity of strand one issues as exclusively British business,” he said. However, when the Secretary of State gently reminds them of this, their republican entitlement takes over and they “assert their unabated goal of Irish unity”.