Irish unity referendum should be held by 2030, first minister says

Minister O’Neill said ‘now is the time for the plan and the preparation’.

Appearing on the Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips show this morning, Michelle O’Neill said it was an opportunity for the Northern Irish people to ‘take control of our own fortunes’.

When asked if she could foresee a unity referendum in her time as first minister, she said she ‘absolutely can’, adding that it is her ‘party’s view’ to have this by 2030.

“So now is the time for the plan and the preparation.

“I don’t want done to the people here what was done in relation to Brexit.

“Brexit was an economic self-harm, a massive act of economic self-harm. It was done against the wishes of the people,” she continued.

Minister O’Neill added:  “We have an ability to take control of our own fortunes. I encourage all political leaders to reach for that together.”

These remarks contradict what Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said about a possible border-poll referendum.

Speaking about the concept in September, he stated that ‘there won’t be a border poll before 2030’.

Furthermore, Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister, Emma Littke Pengelly, also appeared on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, where she said nationalist and republican movements in Northern Ireland have not increased their vote share since devolution from Westminster in 1998.

“I’m a unionist, we have a Sinn Fein first minister. But I think it’s important to say that in Northern Ireland nationalism and republicanism haven’t increased their vote from 1998.

“Despite democratic change, they’re sitting on and around the same percentage that they had in 1998. I think those who want to see the breakup of the union do try to constantly get this momentum.

“I have no doubt that you will hear that again because of course to serve their purpose is to try to get that sense of momentum towards that. That doesn’t exist in Northern Ireland,” she concluded.