Little-Pengelly looking forward to ‘more positive’ relationship between unionists and new Taoiseach

Ms Little-Pengelly was speaking after meeting with Mr Harris, along with First Minister Michelle O’Neill, during the Taoiseach’s first official visit to Northern Ireland as premier.

"We highlighted the fact that perhaps relationships, particularly between unionism and the Taoiseach's office have not always been good in the last number of years,” the deputy First Minister told the media outside Stormont Castle.

"But we look forward to building a more positive relationship, an engagement which is based with respect to that stranded approach in respect with the internal issues of Northern Ireland are those for the government of Northern Ireland and for the United Kingdom.

"But of course, there are areas of mutual interest where we can work together. Those are set out in terms of the areas of cooperation.

"But there will be other areas where we will want to engage and the best way to do that is with that respect and also in building those positive relationships.

"The Republic of Ireland is our closest neighbour and of course, we want to be good neighbours and have those positive working relationships."

During Leo Varadkar’s tenure as Taoiseach, he angered many unionists on several occasions, most notably in 2018 when he used a newspaper article about an IRA bombing of a customs post to highlight the “real risk” of violence returning if there was a hard border on the island of Ireland following Brexit.

Speaking today, Mr Varadkar’s successor as Taoiseach said he had a “really good engagement” with the Stormont leaders and praised their “incredible leadership”.

“I was eager to get here in the early stages of my tenure as Taoiseach because we now have institutions back up and running in the north,” he said.

"I am very grateful to the First Minister and deputy First Minister for the incredible leadership they are showing in the political environment in terms of trying to deliver for people and I'm extraordinarily pleased the Irish Government is in a position to work, where appropriate, on a range of issues.

"I think we have an impressive list of areas where we are now actively cooperating and collaborating in."

Michelle O’Neill said the meeting with Mr Harris focused on areas of “shared collaboration” and “partnership working”.

The First Minister also spoke of the need for the upgrade of the A5, following two more deaths on the road earlier this week. Back in February the Irish Government confirmed it would contribute €600m for the upgrade as part of a package of investment for cross-border projects.

"I am very glad [Mr Harris] has taken the opportunity to be here early in his tenure to talk about the areas of shared collaboration, partnership working, particularly around areas that the Irish Government have already identified, particularly around the Shared Island Fund,” she said.

"A good opportunity to again underline our commitment to the A5, particularly given the week that's been and two more young people tragically losing their lives on that very dangerous stretch of road.

"Clearly a lot of areas of opportunity for advancement, particularly now that we have the north-south ministerial bodies back up and working again."

She added: "We talked about some of those areas of economic development. We talked about the opportunities we have in terms of pursuing a lot of these big infrastructure projects, the A5, Narrow Water."

Ms O’Neill was asked by the media about the news from the Covid inquiry on Tuesday, which revealed how NI’s chief medical officer branded the Stormont Executive “dysfunctional b******s” in a message to Health Minister Robin Swann during the pandemic.

The First Minister said she would not comment “out of respect for the inquiry”, noting she is due to appear before the panel in the coming weeks.

Mr Harris also spoke about the ongoing diplomatic row between the Irish Government and UK Government over immigration.

It comes after Irish Justice Minister Helen McEntee claimed that more than 80% of recent asylum claims in the Republic were from people who arrived in the state by crossing the border from NI. Ms McEntee blamed the UK’s Safety of Rwanda Act for the increase.

Mr Harris said there was a need for a “sense of calm” amid the tensions between the two governments.

"We have a common travel area between the two islands, that is a common travel area that has been in place for a very long time when both countries were in the European Union, and it is still in place now when one country is within the European Union and one isn't,” he added.

"I am determined to work as Taoiseach constructively to make sure that the common travel area is protected, the common travel area is never abused.

"There is a range of measures we need to take on an Irish level in terms of improving our migration systems."