In their conclusions, the authors recommend Northern Ireland – which remains relatively poor and heavily reliant on public sector spending and employment – embark on major reforms to improve its residents’ standard of living.
“Even though Ireland has a much higher national income, funding the needs of the people of Northern Ireland in a united Ireland would put huge financial pressure on the people of Ireland, resulting in an immediate major reduction in their living standards,” the report says.
Currently NI doesn’t want to leave the UK, no. But religion isn’t really that strong a reason anymore.
I suspect the Republic of Ireland doesn’t want Northern Ireland either, for the reasons stated in the article.
So I’m not sure why we’re even talking about it.