The Taoiseach:

Under the previous Government and this Government, the shared island initiative, even though it is without any constitutional context - we have been upfront, honest and very straightforward about that; it is not a Trojan Horse - has earned significant engagement from all traditions on the island, particularly from Northern Ireland. That is a positive. It is about building connectivity and reconciliation, sorting out mutual problems and working out how we share the place together. It is very much based on Seamus Mallon's idea of a shared home place. We all live on this island and the question is how we share it in the most harmonious and productive way.

If we preordain the outcome immediately in terms of having a referendum on whatever date and telling people what the result will be, that might get a negative result or it may just alienate people before the ball is thrown. There is a need to engage with communities with which we have not been good at engaging. They, too, must engage; there is a need for two-way communication.

The way the Border poll idea came about was aggressive at the time. It was in response to Brexit and would have thrown petrol on the fire at the time because Brexit was a disaster for Britain and was damaging for British-Irish relations and North-South relations. We rescued it as best we could in the Windsor Framework and all of that, and Northern Ireland is still in the Single Market. I think we have overcome that bit. If politics could demonstrate people working together in the North for a sustained period, barriers would break down.