Windsor Framework: London and Dublin must work together to exert pressure to restore Stormont, says Leo Varadkar

Ireland’s premier said he regretted that the two governments had not worked more closely over the restoration of the power-sharing institutions “for quite some time”.

Mr Varadkar also said he was hopeful that Stormont would return in the autumn, but conceded it was not an expectation at this stage.

The DUP collapsed the Stormont executive last year in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements created by the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The Windsor Framework struck by London and Brussels earlier this year sought to reduce the red tape on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK while maintaining the dual market access.

However, the DUP has insisted the new accord does not go far enough to address its concerns around sovereignty and the application of EU law in Northern Ireland, and the party is maintaining its blockade of Stormont until it receives further legal assurances from the UK government.

Mr Varadkar said he intended to visit Northern Ireland for a round of meetings with political parties next month.

He said: “We’re still working as best we can with the British government and the five main parties to have the assembly and executive up and running in the autumn.

“One thing I’m saying very strongly to the British government is that we need to have a common strategy, that we need to work hand in glove, that we need together to put pressure on the parties to come into government.

“We haven’t really had that approach for quite some time, I regret that we don’t.

“I’m continuing to say to our UK counterparts that the right way forward is an agreed strategy, hand in glove, hand in hand approach between the British and Irish governments, because that’s when Northern Ireland works best, 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 unionists, and I would like us to get back to that point.”

Mr Varadkar said the Irish government was not party to discussions taking place between the Westminster government and the DUP over post-Brexit trading concerns.