THE secretary of state has said he will be visiting border villages and communities over the coming days to reasure them that there will be no hardening of the border after Brexit.
Speaking in Belfast yesterday Julian Smith has also expressed unhappiness at the pace of recent negotiations to restore Stormont, adding that commitments made to ensure the border remained open would be a priority.
"I accept that the border is a hugely sensitive issue, I believe that we absolutely have to ensure that there is no hard border that there is never a hard border," Mr Smith said.
"My priority is that I continue to make clear to my colleagues how the Good Friday Agreement, the commitments the parties made at that time, has to be the priority for every scenario we come to as we prepare to leave the European Union."
The Northern Ireland Secretary said politicians needed to realise there are "no more excuses" for failing to restore powersharing, saying public sector workers have stepped in for too long to fill the vacuum left by a lack of political leadership.
"Getting Stormont up and running has to be the priority," he said.
"Political parties across the spectrum must now realise that civil servants, police, hospital workers, nurses, doctors have for too long stepped in for a lack of political leadership and there are no more excuses - we just have to get this assembly and executive moving.
"All of the civil servants and public sector works I have met this week are really doing incredible work when actually they should be getting much more support from Northern Ireland political leaders."
The Conservative MP held talks with the Republic's foreign affairs minister and tanáiste Simon Coveney in Hillsborough earlier this week to discuss the impasse.
Reforms to laws on abortion and same-sex marriage will be introduced at Westminster in October if devolution is not restored.
Mr Smith said, while there has been activity throughout August, "it has not been at the pace that I want".
"If politicians in Northern Ireland do not grasp this opportunity there will be a whole range of policy areas being imposed as a result of the Bill that went through (Westminster), largely through free votes on a number of issues before this summer.
"I hope that over the coming days political leaders will come together and address the outstanding issues.
"The outstanding issues are important but compared to the issues of waiting lists, compared to the resource issues across the public sector, the decisions that need to be made, these issues can be dealt with and I just want to work with Simon (Coveney) to ensure that we put as much focus on getting Stormont up and running and that also allows local politicians to be deciding the future on these issues. Westminster shouldn't be deciding it. But we need to move now."
