TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said there is a “reluctance” within the UK government to work with colleagues in Dublin to restore the Stormont Assembly.

Northern Ireland has been without a functioning government for more than a year amid unionist concerns around post-Brexit trading arrangements.

The Windsor Framework struck by London and Brussels earlier this year sought to reduce the red tape on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK while maintaining the dual market access.

However, the DUP has insisted the new accord does not go far enough to address its concerns around sovereignty and the application of EU law in Northern Ireland.

Last month, DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said he expected to receive a “definitive response” from the UK Government over issues of concern he has raised about the Windsor Framework “in the near future”.

Donaldson said this would determine whether his party could support a return of the powersharing institutions at Stormont.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar called on Downing Street to “work hand-n-glove and apply both pressure and support to the five parties (of the Stormont Assembly) in a co-ordinated way”.

However, he added that “that’s been absent now for a long time, unfortunately”.

He further claimed that there is a “reluctance in Downing Street to go down that route”.

Varadkar is due to meet with political leaders in the North in Belfast later this week.

In his interview with the Financial Times, Varadkar also warned that “if we don’t seize this window of opportunity in the next couple of months” then attention will turn to the next UK general election, which is due to be held no later than 28 January, 2025.

“It might be after that before we can get things going again,” said Varadkar.  

A senior UK government official told the Financial Times that there is “active dialogue” between with the DUP to restore Stormont.

The official added that involving the Irish government in restoring the Assembly would be “problematic” for the North’s unionist community.