More engagement needed with NI communities - Varadkar

The Irish government needs to engage more with all communities in Northern Ireland with the current stalement at Stormont "not a realistic option", Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar has said.

Mr Varadkar was speaking at the Ard Fheis (annual party conference) of his party Fine Gael.

He added that Fine Gael needed to redouble its efforts to find a path forward for the restoration of a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.

Mr Varadkar also criticised Sinn Féin and praised Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin.

The Fine Gael leader is due to replace Mr Martin as taoiseach on 17 December, as part of the deal their parties agreed to form a coalition government.

Mr Varadkar told party members: "Let's acknowledge that our Taoiseach Micheál Martin has been a good one.

"Through difficult circumstances, including the latter stages of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, he has been a voice for decency, kindness and common sense and we thank him for it."

Sinn Féin policy 'disaster'

He added that he wanted the government - formed between his party, Mr Martin's Fianna Fáil and the Green Party - to last.

"We have a political system that can be adversarial at election times, but which can also produce coalitions that work."

However, Mr Varadkar said he would never consider going into coalition with Sinn Féin.

He told Fine Gael members that Sinn Féin's policies would be a "disaster to our country".

Speaking about Northern Ireland, Mr Varadkar said his party needed "to engage with northern nationalists, unionists and that growing middle ground who identify as both Northern Irish rather than British or Irish - and those who identify as both".

"Stalemate and the status quo is not a realistic option or an acceptable one," he added.

Northern Ireland has been without a government since February as the DUP has refused to return to power-sharing due to its protest over the post-Brexit rules overseeing trade, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The Fine Gael party leader also touched on a number of issues which he said the party was determined to tackle including the housing crisis, climate change and imposing stronger sentences for crime.