“ANYBODY THAT SUGGESTS that President Biden doesn’t get Northern Ireland or understand Northern Ireland is wrong, he understands it very well,” Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said in New York today. 

President Joe Biden yesterday warned UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week that the Northern Ireland peace process should be not be jeopardised by issues in dealing with the Northern Ireland protocol.

Speaking in the Oval Office, the US president stressed the importance of maintaining the Good Friday Agreement.

“I feel very strongly,” he said, when asked about the Northern Ireland protocol.

“I would not like to see – nor would many of my Republican colleagues – a change in the Irish accord,” said Biden. 

UK Environment Secretary George Eustice has claimed today that Biden doesn’t understand the “very complicated” situation in Northern Ireland.

When asked about this at the Fitzpatrick Hotel in Manhattan, the Taoiseach told reporters that such an assertion is “wrong”.

He said the Irish Ambassador to the US Dan Mulhall and his team constantly appraise the US administration of the importance of the UK and EU trade agreement, and the Northern Ireland protocol.

The Taoiseach said the EU is in “solution mode” to find an answer to the disagreement, stating that the EU wants to solve this 

“We appreciate that President Biden and his administration has been very consistent in their messaging to the UK government,” he said, adding that now is a time for working together so as not to undermine the Good Friday Agreement. 

He said successive US administrations have invested significantly in the peace process, and they regard it is being one of their success stories.