Taoiseach Micheál Martin has promised a new commission to explore whether a united Ireland should keep the Stormont Assembly. 

The Fianna Fáil President will bring a memo to Cabinet on the matter, which will delve into the island of Ireland’s “constitutional futures”. 

On The Claire Byrne Show, Irish Times Political Editor Pat Leahy described it as Mr Martin’s “most significant intervention in the debate about Irish unity” since he became Taoiseach six years ago. 

“He has been criticised a lot by Sinn Féin and other proponents of Irish unity in recent years for his lack of interest, as they would see it in Irish unity,” Mr Leahy explained. 

“Certainly, his lack of action in terms of preparing for a United Ireland, which is what they want to see.

“But the approach that he outlined to us in the Irish Times yesterday is, I suppose it's less of a pathway to a united Ireland and more of an exercise in scoping out what a united Ireland, but also different constitutional futures, as he terms them, might look like.”

The commission will be organised by the Department of the Taoiseach and examine three options; the status quo, a unitary state or a united Ireland, with a devolved Assembly for the six counties. 

Mr Leahy said that the idea of keeping Stormont is an “interesting departure”, given the desire of many nationalists for a unitary state. 

“[It] may signal what Micheál Martin himself believes to be the most likely outcome or the most likely shape of a united Ireland for at least for a temporary period,” he said. 

“I suppose maintaining Northern Ireland as a devolved region under the sovereignty of Dublin, as it were, rather than London, would enable you to have a transition period.

“So, all the kind of difficult bits of integration; like what do you do with education systems, what do you do with health systems, what do you do on crime, security, defence, all those things in the case of a devolved Northern Ireland?

“I guess this is one of the things that this new research operation would be looking at.”

Mr Leahy added that an advantage of maintaining Stormont is that it would make a united Ireland “a little more palatable to some of those within the unionist community”. 

Under the Good Friday Agreement, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is obliged to call a border poll if it looks like there is majority support for a united Ireland in the six counties. 

A LucidPoll found last month that 47% of people in Northern Ireland support the Union with Great Britain, while 35% back a united Ireland. The remaining 18% are undecided.

Main image: North South Ministerial Council. Picture by: RollingNews.ie.