Taoiseach says greater clarity needed over border poll call

Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin has said there needs to be greater clarity about what would lead to a border poll being called.

Martin was speaking ahead of his first meeting later this month with Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

Martin said that in his view it's "not satisfactory" that the decision to call a referendum is left simply as a "judgement call" for the Northern Ireland secretary.

He said there "needs to be discussion" about how a referendum would be triggered.

During his first visit to Northern Ireland last month, Burnham said a border poll was "off the table" and that votes on Brexit and Scottish independence showed the "risks that come from those situations take a long time to heal".

Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant later said he and the prime minister "stand full square" behind all of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, including its provisions for a border poll.

"I welcome his [Andy Burnham's] comments in terms of accepting... and he clarified very clear that he accepts the principle of consent, he said that within the Good Friday Agreement a referendum is allowed for," Martin told BBC Radio Ulster's Borderland podcast.

"Obviously the circumstances around that, as to the triggering of that was deliberately left somewhat ambiguous at the time.

"I think there needs to be discussion on that, no question, as part of a wider discussion between all of us, because we are all co-guarantors of the agreement and in addition to that I welcome what he said on legacy as he did commit to legacy and I agree with him on the need for reform of the institutions."

Last week, Fine Gael junior minister Neale Richmond told the same podcast that he believed the Northern Ireland secretary should set out the conditions for calling a border poll.

Referring to the prime minister's comments about a border poll being "off the table", he called it "clumsy language", adding that it is a statement of fact "you would expect from a British prime minister".

"We need to be preparing for what a border poll would look like and moving that dial so more people want a border poll," he said.

Richmond said there was "no point" demanding a border poll without knowing what the terms are to achieve it, and called for the Northern Ireland secretary to lay out what necessitates a referendum.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson said on Thursday that the "support for Northern Ireland's place within the United Kingdom is as strong today as it was at the time of the signing of the Belfast Agreement".

"Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, that was agreed in the Belfast Agreement," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"There can be no change to that unless the people in Northern Ireland wish that to change and there's no sign that they do.

"Because we are a sovereign part of the United Kingdom that decision rests with the Secretary of State, so you either believe in the Belfast Agreement or you don't."

Analysis: Enda McClafferty, BBC News NI Political Editor

This is a shift in position for the taoiseach, but more of a tactical adjustment than a policy U-turn.

Prior to this, Micheál Martin dismissed all talk of a border poll which he said drove him "bananas".

Opting instead to deflect back to the success of the shared island initiative and how it has delivered more than €1bn for cross-border projects.

But this is now a leader feeling the heat from his backbenchers demanding a harder line on a border poll.

They have been unsettled by Fine Gael's plans to prepare for a border poll and stung by Prime Minister Burnham's desire to "take it off the table".

Now Martin has been bounced into biting back but will it be enough to silence those in his camp demanding more?

The Good Friday Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement, was a political deal designed to bring an end to 30 years of violent conflict in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles.

It was signed on 10 April 1998 and approved by public votes in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

It set up a new government for Northern Ireland, representing both nationalists and unionists.

The agreement says that Northern Ireland is part of the UK and this can change only through a referendum.

The secretary of state must hold a border poll if it appears likely that a majority of people in Northern Ireland would vote for Irish unification.

There is no detail in the agreement on how the secretary of state should judge whether there is majority support - but they can decide to hold a border poll at any time, provided that there has not been another in the last seven years.

There is also debate as to what form a border poll should take, for example whether the poll should be held on the general principle of unification or after specific proposals have been set out for how a united Ireland would be governed.