Professor John FitzGerald:

My own view is that it will not happen in my lifetime. I am 74 and with my life expectancy I should make my eighties. A decision to put money aside for this now is not going to happen when it is uncertain whether unification will ever happen. If it is going to happen it will be because the gap has narrowed significantly between the two jurisdictions, and this is under Northern Ireland's control. The Government here can do very little about that. One must also think about the transfers within this island. There are very substantial transfers. Dublin, not Cork, funds the rest of the island. We do not complain about it because this is normal, as Professor Morgenroth said, but it is not made explicit. Once there is a united Ireland, and even if it is a federal system with jurisdiction in the North in Ireland, it would be made explicit that there is a €10 billion or €20 billion transfer from Dublin to Northern Ireland. Then Galway and Donegal would say, "Well we are going to get less". There are issues there with regard to regional transfers. We gloss over that. We are happy with the current situation where the rich fund the poor but once one makes explicit a huge transfer from this part of the island to Northern Ireland one could open up a can of worms in terms of regional transfers within this island.