Leo Varadkar has insisted any personal concerns over his safety will not deter him from visiting Northern Ireland
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Earlier this month, posters using his face and a background image of loyalist bomb attacks in the Republic of Ireland in 1974 warned of a potential return to violence. Speaking to reporters in Dublin on Friday, Mr Varadkar acknowledged there were concerns about him visiting Northern Ireland in the current environment.
Powersharing in Northern Ireland is in flux due to a DUP boycott of the Stormont institutions in protest over the protocol. The UK and Irish governments are keen to see devolution return before April’s landmark 25th anniversary of Northern Ireland’s Good Friday peace agreement.“I’m keen to visit Northern Ireland, meet with parties in the early new year, I’m keen to speak to the Prime Minister as soon as possible and see if we can come to an agreement,” he said.
“I think it won’t be possible to get the assembly and executive up and running again unless we have an agreement on the protocol. So that’s why it has to be a priority. It is a negotiation that’s handled by the European Union, including Ireland, on the one hand, and the UK on the other.
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