Brexit to impact 'every aspect of life' in N Ireland: Irish PM

Brexit is "the challenge of our generation" with far-reaching consequences for all, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar warned Northern Ireland yesterday on his first visit to the British province.

"Every single aspect of life in Northern Ireland could be affected by the outcome -- jobs and the economy, the border, citizens' rights, cross-border workers, travel, trade, agriculture, energy, fisheries, aviation, EU funding, tourism, public services, the list goes on," he said in a speech at Queen's University in Belfast.

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Varadkar was expected to hold separate meetings later yesterday with the leaders of the main political parties, including Arlene Foster of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Northern Ireland's biggest party, which also holds the balance of power in the British parliament in London.

It will be their first meeting since Varadkar triggered a storm of DUP criticism last week by urging the party to clarify its position on the Northern Ireland border after March 2019 -- when the UK will officially exit the European Union.

"They are the ones who want a border -- it is up to them to say what it is, to say how it would work and to first of all convince their own people, their own voters, that this is actually a good idea," he said then.

"We're not going to be helping them to design some sort of border that we don't believe should exist in the first place."