Irish leader Varadkar: Border poll likely to fail now

London, Jun. 19, (PA Media/dpa/GNA) A border poll would probably be defeated if held now, said Leo Varadkar, the Irish leader or Taoiseach.

Varadkar said that if it was held and lost, it would leave a wake of division in Northern Ireland and calls for reunification would likely fall off the agenda for years, citing examples in republican Australia and Quebec in Canada.

“I don’t think it’d be a good idea, certainly not at this point in time,” he said, despite stating that he would like to see a united Ireland.

“I think the difficulty with the border poll is it would certainly be divisive in Northern Ireland, but it would also probably be defeated in Northern Ireland.

“If you look at what the Good Friday Agreement says, it makes provision for a border poll, makes provision for a referendum on unification, but it says in the Good Friday Agreement that it should only happen when there’s actually a stage (when) Northern Ireland has formed the opinion that it might pass.”

He added: “The biggest difficulty of a referendum, or a border poll that would be unsuccessful, would be that it would probably take the issue off the agenda for a long period of time.”

GNA