Irish unity is no longer viewed by many in Northern Ireland as a pressing political issue, according to a new survey.

Only 7% of respondents to the poll said that they would vote to remove the border between the North and South of Ireland immediately, while just a quarter would support removing it before 2032. Overall, 55% came out against any change, though 13% stated that they had no opinion on the subject.

Even among Catholics, the numbers supporting Irish unity immediately (7%) or in twenty years’ time (41%) remained a minority. Support for the immediate removal of the border was in fact higher among people with no religious affiliation (12%), but less of this group said they would back the change in 2032 (31%).

Protestants were, as expected, most likely to oppose such a move, with 88% coming out against it, a meagre 4% saying they’d support the change by 2032 and 0% saying they would support it immediately.  Just 10% of this group were undecided on the issue.

The survey also found that across all social classes and amongst both sexes, support for removing the border never went above 11%.

The poll was commissioned by the Belfast Telegraph, in partnership with CBI and Momentum, and carried out by LucidTalk. A total of 1,267 adults were interviewed by phone.