TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said that it would be a bad idea for a referendum on Irish unity to require a supermajority to succeed.

He was reacting to comments made this week by Northern Ireland Office minister Steve Baker, who expressed regret that the Brexit referendum did not require a supermajority to pass, and suggested any vote on a united Ireland should also use such a threshold.

Speaking in Brussels, on the second day of the European Council meeting, Varadkar said the calls for a supermajority include “indications are that it would be defeated and it would also be divisive”.

“That’s why the focus has to be on getting the Good Friday Agreement working again, and institutions up and running,” he said.

He highlighted the failed 1999 referendum for an Australia Republic, as well as Quebec’s attempts at independence. 

“Having a referendum on such an important matter that you may not win is fraught with risk, defeat, division,” he continued.

“If we’re going to win a referendum on that matter, a huge amount of work has to be done to convince the British people in Northern Ireland, those who have Unionist Loyalist British identity, that they’re welcome, they’re wanted, that a United Ireland would be a warm home for them.”

Political Editor Christina Finn reporting from the European Council meeting in Brussels

Additional reporting by PA