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LAST UPDATE | 21 hrs ago
A UNITED IRELAND would cost €3bn in the first year, but any financial burdens would disappear within a decade, according to a new report from Dublin City University.
The report, the first peer-reviewed study on the cost of a united Ireland, says an initial investment of €1bn in public expenditure would reduce the cost of a 32-county Ireland gradually.
Author professor John Doyle critiques other projections that say the level of subsidies from the UK government to Northern Ireland, quoted as up to £14bn per year, makes unity not economically feasible.
Doyle says the figure “grossly exaggerates the probable real cost of unity”.
The initial public spending deficit, inherited by the south from the north, would be roughly €1.75bn, he estimates. A gradual implementation of a 48% increase in public pay, over 15 years, would bring wages in line with the Republic’s.
It would cost €152m per year, for 15 years.
Last year, a report by the Institute of International and European Affairs found that a united Ireland would cost €20 billion every year for 20 years. However, it was disputed the estimates of the subvention, or public spending.
At the time, Research Professor of Economics Seamus McGuinness at the ESRI, said the IIEA report was “problematic” and was drafted under the assumption that a “border poll takes place on a Friday and everything transfers on a Monday”.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has remarked that reports in to a United Ireland such as the one carried out by DCU are “nonsense”.
Speaking to reporters while on a trade mission to Japan, Martin was asked by The Journal about the DCU report.
He replied: “I think those kind of reports are nonsense and I wouldn’t pay much heed to it, to be frank.”
He added that “reconciliation is key”.
“I have a difference of perspective in terms of all these issues,” said Martin.
“It’s not a cost issue, it’s fundamentally a reconciliation issue.
“And of course, the costs are much higher than that,” said Martin, who then made reference to the IIEA report.
“From a budgetary point of view, I already know the difficulties, notwithstanding that we’re in surplus and will be adding an increase in expenditure.
“There will be significant costs attached to it… but the fundamental issue in terms of the island of Ireland is reconciliation, and we must do the hard work of reconciliation and concentrate on that, in my view,” said Martin.
-With additional reporting from Christina Finn in Japan
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