DUP wrong to put pre-conditions on taking seats in Stormont, says Taoiseach
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The Taoiseach has said the DUP is wrong to put pre-conditions on powersharing.
Hitting out at Jeffrey Donaldson's party, which has refused to take up its seats in the Assembly until concerns around the protocol are addressed, Micheál Martin said that even if issues with the protocol were resolved before the election, "it would never have been enough."
Mr Martin said it is possible to reach a compromise that would be acceptable to the DUP, but he questioned whether the party would be politically ready to accept that.
"I think the politics of this is more problematic than resolving the actual trading issues around the protocol."
The Taoiseach also ruled out Sinn Féin's call to convene a Citizens' Assembly on the issue of united Ireland border poll.
"I don't favor that approach.
"I've never been into the slogan approach, as soon as Brexit happened the border poll idea went up.
"Sinn Féin have kind of pulled back from it now and I listened to their spokespeople saying 'it's not tomorrow we wanted it now, it's more medium term'. And that points to the need for a more sustained, consistent approach of building bridges of reconciliation," he said.
Turning to the DUP's stance, he said that all of the parties, bar the TUV, focused on bread-and-butter issues during the election campaign, adding: "My sense is the mandate that they all got was to take their Assembly seats and get into the Executive."
"In any election, the reasons people vote for you can be multifactorial, there can be a number of factors behind that. And I think parties should be careful that they don't adopt the mandates they have and create a rationale as to why they got those mandates."
Asked whether the DUP might be more willing to form an Executive if it still was the largest party and was in the First Minister's position, Mr Martin said that was "certainly, an impression that people have."
Mr Martin said substantial talks between the EU and the UK must now begin but denied claims made by Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis that Europe has not been flexible enough in Brexit talks.
"I think the European Union has been flexible, has demonstrated flexibility but every time up to now that European Union has demonstrated flexibility that hasn't been reciprocated.
"That has made the EU more cautious in terms of the discussions with the United Kingdom Government. Now, I think it's fair to say that in the run up to this election, there would have been essentially a pause in terms of substantive negotiations. I think the moment is now for both the EU and UK and we will engage as well," Mr Martin told .