Stormont deadlock: Varadkar may call for British-Irish conference

The Irish prime minster is to call for a meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference if there is no restoration of NI devolution.

Leo Varadkar said it would allow British and Irish ministers to plot a way forward if the Northern Ireland parties cannot agree reach agreement.

Sinn Féin has also called for the conference to be convened.

The DUP leader, Arlene Foster, said it was a "talking shop which has not met since 2007".

Northern Ireland has been without a devolved administration since January, when the governing parties - the DUP and Sinn Féin - split in a bitter row over a failed green energy scheme.

Speaking in the Irish Parliament, Mr Varadkar said that at his meeting with Theresa May in Gothenburg on Friday "I indicated to her that I would be seeking a meeting (of the conference) in the New Year".

The conference brings together the British and Irish governments to promote bilateral co-operation at all levels on all matters of mutual interest.

Mr Varadkar said he had told the prime minister, "that the Irish government could not accept a return to direct rule as it existed prior to the Good Friday Agreement".

He also said that under the Good Friday Agreement "if nothing's devolved then everything is devolved to the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIGC)".

The BIGC consists of ministers from the British and Irish governments. It last met regularly during the period 2002 - 2007 when the Stormont Executive was suspended.

Earlier, Mrs Foster accused Mr Varadkar of being "reckless" as Brexit talks enter a "critical phase".

She said the Irish prime minister "should know better" than to "play around" with Northern Ireland over Brexit.