Irish government to scope out possibility of unity with Northern Ireland for first time

Ireland will set up a government body that would for the first time undertake research and preparations for the possibility of future unity with British-run Northern Ireland, Prime Minister Micheal Martin was quoted as saying on Friday. Martin told the Irish Times that the new body would be tasked with scoping out the models and challenges for different potential outcomes, including Northern Ireland remaining part of the United Kingdom or maintaining its devolved entity but as part of a united Ireland. He was fleshing out an idea first referenced in a speech this week, when he said a new approach was required to carefully address the need for an “independent and dispassionate base of knowledge on which you can have a credible discussion about constitutional futures.” “What has concerned me about this push for a border poll since Brexit is that it’s partisan, it’s a one-sided advocacy approach,” Martin told the Irish Times. “It’s sort of putting forward the idea that this would be easy and that it’s inevitable and our time has come. And it’s almost that this would be a victory for nationalism, as opposed to an approach which genuinely seeks to hear all voices.” Under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, the British government is obliged to call a referendum on Irish unity if it appears likely that a majority of Northern Irish voters would back it. While opinion polls consistently show a majority in favour of remaining in the UK, the gap has narrowed since the UK voted to leave the European Union a decade ago and Irish nationalist parties like Sinn Fein stepped up calls for a referendum. Martin’s proposal, the first steps of which he said he would bring to cabinet before the end of the year, is the latest gradual move by the dominant government parties south of the border to consider what a united Ireland might look like. His government partner Fine Gael will publish what it has described as a blueprint for a unified island at its annual conference next week.