Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar has urged all political parties contesting the next Irish general election to have a manifesto commitment to make a United Ireland an "objective" rather than an "aspiration".
Speaking in Derry this afternoon, the former Fine Gael leader said he believes unification "is likely in the coming decades but by no means certain."
"What I'd like all the parties to do in forthcoming general election is to have a section on Northern Ireland and a New Ireland, making unification not just an aspiration but an objective," he said.
He was speaking at an event organised by the New Ireland Commission, which brought together pupils from four Catholic schools in Derry for a workshop discussing what a future Ireland might look like.
"For us, this is about the future," said SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, who established the Commission.
"There's not really much point in us talking about the future if we’re not listening to the people who are going to own the future, and that’s the young people of this island."
The two politicians spent almost an hour taking part in the workshop, moving between tables to discuss a series of questions about what kind of new Ireland the young people wanted to see.
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Addressing the pupils afterwards, Mr Varadkar stressed that he was speaking in a personal capacity and that his thoughts on unification were "not necessarily those of my party."
While believing that a United Ireland is likely, he said a border poll at this stage would be high risk, describing support for unification in the Republic as "shallow" and "not strong enough" at this stage in Northern Ireland.
"We have to get this right and only ask the question when we know what the question is, and we think there’s a very good chance that it can be passed."
Mr Varadkar stressed the need to ensure that almost a million unionists living in Northern Ireland who identify as British are made to feel that a new Ireland "is their home too."
He has also suggested establishing a Sovereign Wealth Fund to set aside money for unification and the cost of the constitutional transition and the creation of a second New Ireland Forum, bringing together political parties and civil society to discuss the issues and challenges involved.
On what a united Ireland might look like, the former taoiseach made a number of suggestions:
These included, he said, some meetings of the Dáil and Seanad being held at Stormont; A president and vice president of Ireland, with at least one being a British citizen from north of the border; A reformed Senate to give guaranteed representation to the minority for a period or permanently; and a larger Cabinet with a minimum number of government ministers from Northern Ireland.
Mr Varadkar said that while a simple majority in favour of unification in any future referendum would be enough, "it wouldn’t be ideal."
"The thing we should aim for is as big a 'yes’ vote as possible on both sides of the border, so 50 plus 1 is enough, but it’s not what we want," he explained.
"That’s why I think we need as much as possible to design what that new Ireland looks like for people north and south, and then people from the British Unionist community as well."
