都柏林，10月30日 —— 爱尔兰总理米霍尔·马丁周五接受《爱尔兰时报》采访时表示，爱尔兰将设立一个政府机构，首次开展研究并为未来与英国管辖的北爱尔兰实现统一的可能性做准备。
DUBLIN, Oct 30 - Ireland will set up a government body that would for the first time undertake research and preparations for the possibility of future unity with British-run Northern Ireland, Prime Minister Micheal Martin was quoted as saying on Friday.
马丁告诉《爱尔兰时报》，新机构将负责勾勒不同潜在结果的模式与挑战，包括北爱尔兰继续作为英国一部分、或保持其自治实体地位但作为统一爱尔兰一部分等情形。
Martin told the Irish Times that the new body would be tasked with scoping out the models and challenges for different potential outcomes, including Northern Ireland remaining part of the United Kingdom or maintaining its devolved entity but as part of a united Ireland.
他在本周早些时候的一次演讲中首次提出这一构想，当时表示需要一种新方法，审慎应对对“独立且客观的知识基础”的需求，“以便就宪制未来进行可信的讨论”。“自英国脱欧以来，这种推动边境公投的做法让我担忧，因为它带有党派性，是单方面的倡导式做法，”马丁对《爱尔兰时报》说。
He was fleshing out an idea first referenced in a speech this week, when he said a new approach was required to carefully address the need for an "independent and dispassionate base of knowledge on which you can have a credible discussion about constitutional futures." "What has concerned me about this push for a border poll since Brexit is that it's partisan, it's a one-sided advocacy approach," Martin told the Irish Times.
“它某种程度上在宣扬这会很容易、是不可避免的、我们的时刻到了。这几乎是在说这将是民族主义的胜利，而不是一种真正寻求倾听所有声音的做法。”根据1998年《贝尔法斯特协议》（即《耶稣受难日协议》）的条款，如果英国政府认为北爱尔兰选民中很可能有多数支持统一爱尔兰，就有义务举行全民公投。
"It's sort of putting forward the idea that this would be easy and that it's inevitable and our time has come. And it's almost that this would be a victory for nationalism, as opposed to an approach which genuinely seeks to hear all voices." Under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, the British government is obliged to call a referendum on Irish unity if it appears likely that a majority of Northern Irish voters would back it.
虽然民意调查一贯显示多数人倾向于留在英国，但自英国十年前投票决定退出欧盟、以及新芬党等爱尔兰民族主义政党加大公投呼吁以来，差距已有所缩小。
While opinion polls consistently show a majority in favour of remaining in the UK, the gap has narrowed since the UK voted to leave the European Union a decade ago and Irish nationalist parties like Sinn Fein stepped up calls for a referendum.
马丁表示，他将在年底前把提案的第一步提交内阁，这是统治爱尔兰共和国的主流执政党逐步考虑统一爱尔兰可能面貌的最新举措。
Martin's proposal, the first steps of which he said he would bring to cabinet before the end of the year, is the latest gradual move by the dominant government parties south of the border to consider what a united Ireland might look like.
其政府合作伙伴统一党将在下周的年度大会上发布其所谓的统一爱尔兰蓝图。
His government partner Fine Gael will publish what it has described as a blueprint for a unified island at its annual conference next week.