AN TAOISEACH LEO Varadkar is due to travel to the North tomorrow where he will meet the leaders of the powersharing Executive and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Varadkar will head to Belfast following yesterday’s return of the Northern Ireland Executive after almost two years. Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill made history by becoming the first nationalist First Minister.
The institutions were restored following a deal between Sunak’s government and the DUP to allay unionist concerns over post-Brexit trading arrangements.
Sunak is due to be meeting O’Neill and the DUP’s Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly tomorrow.
During his visit, his seventh to Northern Ireland, he will also carry out a number of community engagements, meeting people involved in public services.
The UK Government has pledged £3.3 billion for the new Executive to stabilise finances, including £600 million to settle public sector pay claims.
Speaking yesterday, O’Neill said that while it seemed like a significant of money, more would be needed.
“So on the face of it, it does sound like a big pot of money, but it is not, because from the Tories having been in power for 13 years now, they have starved public services here much needed funding,” she said.
“So everything they’ve taken away they haven’t even tried to replace. So I would make the case very clearly to the British government. Before Christmas, they put this money on the table. In doing so they recognise that we’re funded below need that makes it very difficult to do public services here.”
O’Neill also said she would raise the issue of a border poll to vote for Irish unity with UK PM Rishi Sunak and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris when she meets them.
Speaking today on RTÉ’s This Week programme, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said it was her belief that a referendum on Irish unity could be held in the next decade.
With reporting from Press Association
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