In their conclusions, the authors recommend Northern Ireland – which remains relatively poor and heavily reliant on public sector spending and employment – embark on major reforms to improve its residents’ standard of living.
“Even though Ireland has a much higher national income, funding the needs of the people of Northern Ireland in a united Ireland would put huge financial pressure on the people of Ireland, resulting in an immediate major reduction in their living standards,” the report says.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Brexit, demographic change and political turmoil in Northern Ireland have left many wondering if reunification could come sooner than expected.
Findings from the Dublin-based Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) take into account the current level of funding Northern Ireland receives from the UK government.
Northern Ireland’s public services currently rely heavily on a “subvention” of some €11 billion from the UK, which in the event of unification would need to be replaced by funding from Dublin.
According to the IIEA, the resulting spend would be equivalent to 10% of Ireland’s Gross National Income, 40% of which is currently spent on public services.
“To deal with the resulting deficit, which under the most favourable circumstances would persist for many years after unification, there would have to be a dramatic increase in taxation and/or a major reduction in expenditure.”
In their conclusions, the authors recommend Northern Ireland – which remains relatively poor and heavily reliant on public sector spending and employment – embark on major reforms to improve its residents’ standard of living.
The original article contains 535 words, the summary contains 171 words. Saved 68%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!