Professor Edgar Morgenroth:

I will start with Deputy Brendan Smith's question about a seventh implementation body. That would be a good idea if such a body would be allowed to work and function properly. That has not always been the case with some of the implementation bodies. That is another can of worms we could open and on which we could talk for a few hours. The big proviso here is that it should be a body that ends up doing what it is supposed to do.

On Senator Blaney's question, affordability is a bit like a beauty contest. What someone thinks is beautiful, another person might not see that way. I can only talk about what we have seen in the past. In Germany, the cost was extremely high but, by and large, people were willing to pay the price. As academics and economists, the part we can contribute is to identify the costs and let people decide whether it is a price they are willing to pay. To do that, it is necessary to elaborate in much more significant detail on what it is we are looking at if we are thinking about a united Ireland. That is the thing nobody did in Germany. It happened overnight, there was total consent. I do not think you would have found too many people who would have been against a united Germany at the time. Also, there was no referendum. Germany does not have a culture of referendums in any event. It happened and then people reacted to it.

We should learn from Brexit and the referendum relating to it, which had absolutely no plan attached. We have the opportunity to look at the issues we have - we have discussed quite a few but there are many more - look at the economic implications and then let people make a decision on that basis, if and when the time comes. That is the important thing. Ultimately, we are all agreed that we are looking at Northern Ireland, the Border region and Ireland, as a whole, having the best outcome. We all want to achieve the highest level of prosperity in the broad sense. Obviously, different people have different views as to how we might achieve that but that is ultimately the aim and it should be the aim regardless of whether there is a poll. We are all hoping that people have a better life.

To respond to a question from Mickey Brady, life expectancy in the Republic of Ireland is nearly a year longer than in the North. There are issues in that regard. We might think the NHS is a better system, it still does not get a person longer life expectancy. There are many issues we could continue thinking about that. Ultimately, we need to consider the sorts of scenarios we can envisage and what are the costs. The rest is politics and not in my domain