Taoiseach: Harris hails impact of Stormont restoration

The Taoiseach made his first official visit to Northern Ireland today (Friday) and praised the progress following Stormont's return.

Simon Harris, who became the Irish Premier last month, met with Stormont leaders on Friday morning for talks focused around areas of shared economic collaboration.

However, Northern Ireland's deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said she had raised concerns that relations between unionists and the Taoiseach's office had not always been good in the past.

Mr Harris's visit to Stormont Castle had an unpromising start when First Minister Michelle O'Neill and Ms Little-Pengelly were not outside the building to officially welcome him as his car arrived.

After standing at the bottom of the steps for a few moments, Mr Harris then entered the building only to emerge shortly after with the two Stormont leaders to pose for photographs.

After a meeting lasting just short of an hour, they emerged again and Mr Harris praised the "incredible leadership" of Northern Ireland's First and deputy First Ministers.

He said: "It has been a really good engagement.

"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.

"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 co-operating and collaborating in."

Powersharing returned in Northern Ireland in February following a 24-month hiatus.

Mr Harris is Ireland's youngest-ever Taoiseach.

Ms O'Neill said there were many areas of shared collaboration, over the planned new A5 road project, which the Irish Government will partially fund.

She said: "I am very glad he 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.

"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 the those areas of economic development, we talked about the opportunities we have in terms of pursuing a lot of these big infrastructure projects."

The DUP's Ms Little-Pengelly said: "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.

"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 co-operation.

"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."

Mr Harris then moved to Parliament Buildings where he was welcomed by Edwin Poots, the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly before holding talks with Stormont party leaders.

The Taoiseach will later have a working lunch with business stakeholders before he is hosted by The Duncairn arts centre where the focus will be on the achievements in reconciliation and community development work of the 174 Trust, through disability, arts, women and pre-school groups.

Its projects have been recipients of the Reconciliation Fund and Shared Island Creative Ireland programmes of the Government of Ireland.

The day will conclude with a visit to Queen's University Belfast where Mr Harris will meet academics involved in ongoing all-island research, including on cancer care, sustainable energy and resilient food systems and others co-funded by programmes resourced through the Irish Government's Shared Island Fund.