Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

Fundamentally, it is our view that we are not planning for a constitutional referendum in the next five years during the term of this Government and we have been clear on that. We have developed a shared island initiative and we have put an extra €1 billion in there.

My view is that we would have to build reconciliation and everything is not about a Border poll. I believe in Wolfe Tone's vision of a united Ireland in the context of reconciliation between people and the unity of people, not just territory. I think we have a lot of work to do and the hard work of reconciliation has to happen.

I launched a book last evening on partition. One of the conclusions from it is that in the 1940s and 1950s - although interestingly, de Valera and Lemass from very early on were saying we need to engage - in the Republic there was lots of anti-partition rhetoric but practically, it went nowhere. It was only when Lemass went over to meet Terence O'Neill there actually was a period in the 1960s where there was a beginning to develop an engagement. There should have been a Council of Ireland in 1925, at the time of the Boundary Commission and all of that. That might have helped us engage. The issues were never engaged with in terms of unionism and loyalism. The Good Friday Agreement was probably the first time there was a substantial examination of parity of esteem and of respect for each other's traditions and cultures. However, I do not think the Good Friday Agreement has been fully realised in terms of making advances on reconciliation.

I think we need to build more reconciliation in the first instance. We have made a lot of progress in terms of North-South agenda. Membership of the European Union did facilitate that. Brexit has been a negative in that respect because to a large extent, the Border disappeared economically when we were members of the Single Market. That did not get commented on much. It was not done by any referendum. We have an all-island Single Market, for example, and there is a far greater convergence on economy, even though some might not want to admit that but there is and there is far greater connectivity. We need to continue to work on that basis. That would be my view. I also think that the politics of the North has to evolve as well. The current Executive is working reasonably well. There are issues and so forth, and disagreements. All of that has to be in place. That would be my view on it.