Dr. Ciara Fitzpatrick:

The respective states of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have more in common than what divides them when it comes to the social security system. This creates opportunities and challenges, which must be given adequate academic and political attention in preparation for reunification.

Our paper did not seek to undertake a like for like comparison due to the extent of the divergences in the legislative structures of both systems and disparities in household entitlement owing to the complexity of unemployed people's lives. In addition, this endeavour is further complicated by the interaction of a completely different healthcare system, which may absorb or generate additional costs for claimants and render such a comparison meaningless. Rather, we concentrated on the ideological drivers of both systems, which have incrementally moved towards an activation approach that seeks to maximise participation in the labour market and change individual patterns of behaviour. Yet, the policy measures introduced in the past two decades in the Republic of Ireland have not been as severe as those implemented in Great Britain. We have seen a clear example of that in the past couple of weeks when we had speculation around whether the UK Government will raise benefits in line with inflation compared with the Irish Government's decision to provide citizens with an extra €48 per week for support.

We assert that a constitutional reunification process provides an opportunity to build a new welfare state system from the ground up, prioritising the social, economic and cultural rights of a contemporary society that can be enshrined in a legislative framework that embodies dignity, respect and a minimum standard of income for all, which can improve societal participation for the marginalised. We considered the current co-ordination efforts on matters of social welfare contained in the common travel area and while we recognised what works well and what does not, we also acknowledge the considerable gap between co-ordination of two distinct systems and the formation of whole-island approach in the case of reunification. This will necessitate difficult conversations on the shape of a new system. For example, would it involve the assimilation of the Northern Ireland social security system into that of the Republic and be reordered accordingly? Would there be a gradual phasing out of the northern system involving an asymmetric arrangement where the North retains devolved autonomy in the social welfare sphere? Would there be a new system that signals a break with the previous two utilised on either side of the Border, with an adjoining mission statement? Answering all these questions will require going back to the very basics and revisiting normative questions, such as, what is social security? If we do not get that right, the utopian vision could be greatly compromised.