Irish government hosts fourth all-island forum on Brexit

The all-island forum on Brexit will be hosted by the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar

The Irish government is to hold an all-island forum examining the implications of Brexit later on Monday.

The meeting will be hosted by the Taoiseach (Irish prime minister), Leo Varadkar, and his deputy, Simon Coveney.

It will be the fourth time the forum has met since it was set up following the EU referendum in June 2016.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), who supported Brexit, has always said there is no need for the forum.

Monday's meeting will take place at the Dundalk Institute of Technology, with representatives from the other main political parties expected to attend.

The EU's Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, will also attend the event to give an update on the state of the overall negotiations.

'Aggressive'

Mr Barnier will also visit Northern Ireland on Monday and Tuesday, and he will meet politicians and cross-border business owners in Londonderry, Letterkenny and Dungannon to discuss what impact - if any - a future deal with the UK could have on border towns and cities.

The question of what will happen to the Irish border after Brexit has been a sticking point throughout the talks, with no solution so far.

The Irish government first proposed an all-island forum in the wake of the EU referendum result in June 2016.

It said its priorities for the forum are the Irish economy and trade with the UK, the peace process and Northern Ireland and the Common Travel Area (CTA) between Ireland and the UK.

At the time, Sinn Féin supported the idea, but the DUP said that existing cross-border bodies could be used to work out the implications of Brexit on the island of Ireland.

Last week, tensions grew between the Irish government and the DUP, after the party's deputy leader Nigel Dodds accused the Irish government of being "aggressive" in its approach to Brexit.

Although the UK voted overall to leave the EU, a 56% majority in Northern Ireland wanted to remain.