Presidential candidate Heather Humphreys has suggested Irish unification could involve the retention of a devolved parliament at Stormont.
The Fine Gael contender insisted that people in Northern Ireland who have a British identity had “nothing to fear” from constitutional change, as the Presbyterian from Co Monaghan highlighted her own experience as part of a “minority community” in the Republic of Ireland.
The issue of reunification and accommodating unionists within any new Ireland was debated between Ms Humphreys and rival independent candidate Catherine Connolly on a debate on RTE Radio One on Friday morning.
“You could be talking about devolved government in Northern Ireland as part of an overall Irish solution,” Ms Humphreys said when asked how a British identity would be reflected within a united Ireland.
“Those are all conversations that we have to have. And there’s no point in pre-empting anything before you go in, you talk to people.
“The first thing we have to do is build trust. If we don’t have trust, we have nothing. So we have to build trust. We have to deepen understanding.
“And I can see that very clearly – there’s still a lot of misunderstanding out there, so we have to deepen that understanding, build trust and work together, because I believe that we must unite people first, as John Hume (former SDLP leader) said, and that is so, so important.
“And I feel I’m very well placed to bring that conversation forward and to bring and work on it, to work towards a united Ireland.”
Ms Humphreys said that if elected, she would make sure the president’s residence at Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin would be a “safe place for unionists to come and outline their concerns”.
She said she would also seek to facilitate conversations between unionists and nationalists.
Galway TD Ms Connolly said a reunified Ireland would have to “respect and value differences”.
“I will do that as president in as much as I can,” she added.
Ms Connolly said the Irish government was not doing enough to examine the issues around unification as she claimed a report on constitutional change compiled by a parliamentary committee in Dublin had been left “sitting on a shelf”.
“My vision as president will be to reach out to communities on all sides,” she said.
“I’ve visited Northern Ireland repeatedly, I visited different communities.
“I will facilitate open forums in relation to listening and building on the work that’s ongoing. It’s really important, the meticulous, methodical work that is ongoing by civic organisations on the ground.
“What’s lacking is a government response. There was a cross-party committee that reported last year. That report is sitting on a shelf.
“That committee asked the government to prepare a green paper to outline the issues and outline the direction for a united Ireland.
“That hasn’t happened unfortunately.”
