Simon Harris has had different opinions on the issue of Irish unity. Little more than two years ago, he told Sky News just days before he became taoiseach that unity was “not where my focus and priority is right now”.Going into the election later that year, he heeded his predecessor Leo Varadkar’s advice to make unity an objective, rather than just an aspiration, in the party’s election manifesto.However, that ambition was short-lived. The word “aspiration” returned in the negotiations surrounding the later programme for government: “Simon is not interested in this, period,” The Irish Times was told by a close source then.Well, Harris is now interested, judging by his declaration that Fine Gael will have a unity blueprint ready for the party’s ardfheis in Dublin in November – something that came as a surprise to those who were expected to produce it.The task has been given to Fine Gael’s previously little-known Northern Engagement Group, led by Dublin West TD Emer Currie, who is no stranger to Northern Ireland given that she is the daughter of former SDLP and FG politician Austin Currie.Taoiseach Simon Harris canvassing with Emer Currie in Castleknock, Dublin, in 2024. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni