Enda Kenny says no united Ireland vote in medium term ‘or perhaps ever’

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has further distanced himself from talk of a post-Brexit united Ireland poll after the North’s first minister, Arlene Foster, told him to concentrate on “reality” instead of “summer school” comments that cause “instability” in the province.

Speaking at a meeting of the British-Irish Council in Wales yesterday, to discuss member states’ individual concerns, Mr Kenny admitted that a vote on a united Ireland “is not going to be the case now or in the medium term, or perhaps ever”.

Despite the clear U-turn, the Fine Gael leader has stressed that the country is still not “going back to the days of checkpoints and towers” amid heightened talk of a hard border between north and south developing.