The Foreign Affairs Minister said “we need to be prepared” for a border poll despite the British prime minister claiming it is “off the table”.
Helen McEntee made the comments after Andy Burnham was criticised last week when, during a visit to Belfast, he told media that a referendum on a united Ireland was “off the table”.
But asked about the comments in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Mr Burnham pledged to “stick 100pc to the Good Friday Agreement”.
Speaking at the informal gathering of EU foreign affairs ministers in Co Wicklow on Wednesday, Ms McEntee said “we need to be prepared” for a border poll.
British foreign secretary Ed Miliband, who was also in attendance at the event in Druids Glen, refused to be drawn on the comments, but said that the British government stood by the Good Friday Agreement.
“I’m not going to comment on that today. I’m here to talk about other matters,” he said.
“We are strong supporters of the Good Friday Agreement, we stand by the Good Friday Agreement.”
When asked about Mr Burnham’s comments, Ms McEntee said: “In relation to the border poll, I’ve been very clear and my own party in particular have been very clear – we need to be prepared for this.
“There is a prerogative for the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, but it is for the people of Northern Ireland to decide this and it is only where there is a view that there may be a majority that we should move forward on this.
“In saying that, that’s why we are working on a blueprint within our own party to make sure that when the time comes, that we are ready, that we are ready to answer and to engage on the different questions and the different possible outcomes of a border poll or a referendum.
“But that work continues as to how we continue to bring people together. The Shared Island Unit, the Shared Island Fund, these are really important and have shown over recent years how we can bring communities together.
“I believe that’s what our focus needs to be, while I do think accepting that in the future we will have a border poll at some stage.”
Mr Burnham met young people at the music venue, the Oh Yeah Centre, before going on to meet Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill, Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly and the Stormont parties at the Culloden Hotel.
When asked whether he would be “the man at Number 10 to press the button for a border poll”, Mr Burnham said he was there “to listen and take a collaborative approach”.
But he said: “Some issues will be off the table, and that is one issue that will be off the table.”
The remarks drew an angry response from nationalist politicians, with Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald stating that no prime minister has the right to “high-handedly” remove the provision for a unity referendum from the Good Friday Agreement.