Irish agreement reaffirmed

Press, 5 December 1985, Page 10

Irish agreement reaffirmed

NZPA-Reuter Luxemburg

The British Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher, and the Irish Premier, Garrett FitzGerald, reaffirmed their agreement on the AngloIrish accord yesterday after a row over comments by a British minister. Both leaders made clear that while they had differing views on the likely future of Northern Ireland

they were committed to respecting the wishes of the majority of its people. They were reacting to a speech in Brussels by the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Tom King, in which he said Mr Fitz Gerald, by signing the accord, had accepted there would never be a united Ireland. “Those remarks were

inappropriate and inaccurate. They do not reflect the views of myself or any of my ministers,” Mr FitzGerald told reporters at the European Summit attended by both leaders in Luxemburg.

“The accord stands in each and every point,” Mrs Thatcher said. Both leaders confirmed that under the agreement

Northern Ireland would stay part of the United Kingdom so long as the majority of its people wished to maintain that status.

However, they equally emphasised that the agreement committed Britain to legislate for a change of status if the majority ever switched to favouring union with the Republic.