Leo Varadkar 'will not be deterred from visiting Northern Ireland'

Leo Varadkar recently began his second term as taoiseach

Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar has said he will not allow concerns over his personal safety to stop him visiting Northern Ireland.

Mr Varadkar has previously been the target of threatening graffiti from loyalists who warned him not to cross the border in Northern Ireland.

In March, his Cabinet colleague Simon Coveney was forced to leave a Belfast event due to a bomb threat.

However, Mr Varadkar said he was "keen" to visit NI early next year.

"Of course I have concerns, but I'm not going to allow any concerns about my personal safety to deter me from doing the job that I'm charged with doing and that is representing Ireland, representing the Irish government, including in Northern Ireland," he said.

"Obviously any security arrangements will be guided by the Garda commissioner and also by the Police Service of Northern Ireland, and I will follow whatever protocols and whatever advice they suggest."

Mr Varadkar recently began his second term as taoiseach following a coalition deal between his Fine Gael party and the Fianna Fáil party.

The Fine Gael leader and his party colleague, Mr Coveney, were vocal opponents of Brexit and during EU negotiations they strongly opposed any attempt to reimpose a hard land border on the island of Ireland.

In order to avoid that scenario, the UK and the EU agreed a post-Brexit trade deal known as the Northern Ireland Protocol.

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The protocol avoided the need for goods checks at the Irish border by arranging checks at Northern Ireland ports on goods arriving from Great Britain.

This arrangement angered unionists, who say it undermines the UK's internal UK market and the union between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

Northern Ireland's biggest unionist party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) pulled out of Stormont's ruling executive in protest over the protocol, meaning Northern Ireland has been without a devolved government for almost 10 months.

Mr Varadkar said resolving the dispute over the protocol was a "huge priority".

"I'm keen to visit Northern Ireland, meet with parties in the early new year, I'm keen to speak to the prime minister (Rishi Sunak) as soon as possible and see if we can come to an agreement," he said.

"I don't think that an agreement on the protocol necessarily unlocks the Northern Ireland assembly and executive, but I do think that we will need an agreement on the protocol before that can be done.

"I'm very keen to make that happen. I think it'd be a real shame if we got to the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement next April and in a situation where we're marking that but with no assembly, no executive, no power-sharing up and running.".