Dr. Alan Renwick:

A point was made about the question of the votes occurring simultaneously North and South. Dr. Tannam might speak to some of the other points. Dr. Kenny set out earlier our thinking that in law, concurrence is not the same as simultaneity, so in law there is no requirement for the votes to be on the same day. We do not take a strong view on whether they should be on the same day and we float various possibilities.

We highlight a couple of reasons for thinking it might be preferable to consider holding the vote in the North first and the South a little later. If the vote in the North goes against unification, it would save the holding of a referendum in the South that would be a bit of a null vote, in effect. If the North voted against the idea, unification would not happen. A second consideration is that if we think there is a requirement for the votes to be simultaneous and acknowledging that some have seen it as problematic that the Good Friday Agreement stipulates that it is for the secretary of state to call the vote, essentially a power is being given to a secretary of state in the UK Government to decide a referendum on a particular day in the Republic of Ireland. That might raise some questions or concerns.