Professor John FitzGerald:

It depends on how much subvention would be needed for Northern Ireland. In our estimation it would still be substantial. Funding substantial subvention would require either higher taxes or lower expenditure in the Republic in the absence of Northern Ireland raising its productivity. In the long term, if Northern Ireland tackles the problems of low productivity, then that gap will narrow and Northern Ireland will have the option of remaining more successfully in the United Kingdom or it would make a united Ireland easier. At the moment, a rise in taxes or cut in expenditure in the Republic just to fund the subvention on the current basis would be very substantial. If one had an equalisation of welfare and pay rates it would be dramatic.