Taoiseach Micheál Martin has urged the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to help restore the Northern Ireland Executive as the deadline looms for avoiding fresh elections in the North.
He appealed to Jeffrey Donaldson’s party to “honour the democratic mandate that has been given”.
If a Stormont Executive is not formed by next Friday, the UK government has warned it will call elections with polling day likely to be in December.
Speaking before his party’s Cairde Fáil dinner in Dublin Mr Martin played down the prospect of an Executive and Northern Ireland Assembly being restored in time.
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The DUP has been refusing to participate in powersharing due to concerns over the Northern Ireland protocol for post-Brexit trading arrangements aimed at avoiding a hard border in Ireland.
A further complication is the political turmoil in Westminister and the leadership race in the Conservative Party to succeed Liz Truss as prime minister.
Asked about reports that former prime minister Boris Johnson has reached the threshold of 100 supportive MPs to enter the contest Mr Martin said: “I don’t know that and I’m not going to interfere in the internal contest within the British Conservative Party in respect of who becomes their leader or indeed who becomes the next British prime Minister.”
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“I do think stability is important in respect of both the European Union and the United Kingdom relationship, the British-Irish relationship, and of course political stability in Northern Ireland.
“From the meetings I had on Monday [with party leaders in the North] there doesn’t appear to be a likelihood that the Executive or the Assembly will be restored by the deadline,” Mr Martin said.
“The British government are adamant and the outgoing government was adamant that there will be elections. We will engage with the British government ministers over the coming days to keep abreast of situation.
“Meanwhile, I would say to the DUP that they should participate in the Assembly and they should contribute to the restoration of the Executive.
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“Because otherwise we are denying democracy, denying the mandate that the people of Northern Ireland have given to their elected representatives to form a parliament and to form the executive.”
Mr Martin said it is “never satisfactory” when the powersharing institutions are not established after elections in the North and there has been too much “stop-start” over the years and this is “simply not good enough”.
“I think the people are becoming increasingly annoyed about that,” he said.
“I would say, particularly to the DUP in this case, because the other political parties want the restoration of the executive and the assembly. I would say to the DUP to honour the democratic mandate that has been given.”
