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.

  • tal@lemmy.today
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    7 months ago

    Yeah, maybe. The GDR was under a whole different economic system, though. I mean, the UK and Ireland are pretty similar.

    But I also think that if Ireland were in the UK and the UK were in the EU that probably everyone involved would be better-off – not to mention all those not-UK not-EU British territories, like the Isle of Man and Jersey and Guernsey. Obviously a lot of people who actually live in the British Isles don’t see things the same way, though, so…