The Government has been urged to do all it can to keep Northern Ireland within the EU.

The Taoiseach is due to chair an all island forum on Brexit next month, in the absence of the North’s First Minister Arlene Foster.

Sinn Féin has said that the forum needs to come up with a practical way to protect the peace achieved under the Good Friday agreement.

Party leader Gerry Adams said that the North cannot be forced to leave the European Union.

“The exit by Britain from the EU would always have had an effect on this state,

“But it’s more acute because they are about dragging the people of the North out of the EU with them, totally contrary to the democratic vote there.

“So what the Government needs to do is to uphold, to assert and to advocate that the North must stay within the European Union.”