Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said a poll on Irish unity could be held on the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
The ex-premier who helped negotiate the 1998 deal to end 30 years of bloodshed in Northern Ireland said more use should be made of its institutions.
The agreement established a series of institutions for political cooperation across Ireland.
Mr Ahern told Italian newspaper La Repubblica that a united Ireland was achievable.
He said: “Yes, I do. It can be done in the long term.
“It’s not going to be this decade, the vote should be the end of next decade, maybe on the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
“The only way it can happen is if the nationalist people, the Republican people and all the people in the South and the Republican Ireland can convince our unionist friends that this is the best thing for the whole island.”
