The Prime Minister of Ireland has said that he believes that Ireland is on the way to reunification and that Ireland will be united in his lifetime, reports RTE.
Leo Varadkar said a united Ireland would have a million Britons and would be judged by how the country’s minorities were treated.
In January, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he declined to say whether he thought there would be a united Ireland in his lifetime.
He said at the time that this could be seen as a provocation during delicate EU-UK negotiations on the Northern Ireland Protocol.
In a wide-ranging interview with RTÉ News at One, Varadkar said that while Electric Ireland’s energy price cuts were welcome, he did not believe the cuts would be enough.
He said he plans to meet with the utilities soon and said they should reduce further.
The Prime Minister said the budget will include both universal and targeted measures to help households pay their energy bills, reports RTE.
While he didn’t rule out giving state regulators more power to monitor energy prices, he said they now have far-reaching powers.
The Taoiseach also said that the best way to control prices is good competition.
Speaking about Wolf Tones’ performance at the Electric Picnic, Varadkar said people love singing and some people read too much into politics.
But he said the Republican ballad, a song some can sing along to, can be deeply offensive to others.
He said, to unite this country, people should think about how their words and songs can be heard by others.
On party issues, following Richard Bruton’s decision not to stand at the next election, the Taoiseach expects “one or two more” Fine Gael tank destroyers to also step down.
For RTÉ, the Taoiseach said he was not aware that senior executives at companies received 10% raises last year, but that the government was not willing to set salaries at state-owned companies.
Mr Varadkar expressed confidence in RTÉ’s management.
“I have a lot of confidence in the new Director General. I think he has made a very good start in the past few months in very difficult circumstances,” the Taoiseach said, reports RTE.
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