Sir, – I think it’s time that we in the Republic come clean with the good folks in Northern Ireland and stop stringing them along. A poll by RTÉ last November found only 31 per cent of people in the Republic would vote for a united Ireland if it meant paying more tax.
There is no way the Republic is going to vote for a united Ireland when the voters realise that the UK government gives Northern Ireland a subsidy of €13.5 billion a year. That would be €6,500 from every working person in the South, every year! The various reports of savings of €25 billion are as bogus as the €350 million a day the Leave side said it would have for the NHS after Brexit.
Remember the outcry at the €200 a year for the water and €300 for the waste collection? Can you imagine the average household being asked to pay €13,000 a year more in tax to keep the North in the life to which it has become accustomed. So let’s do the decent thing and break off this relationship now and let Northern Ireland focus on finding someone else to hook up with. I hear Scotland might be single soon. – Yours, etc,
CHARLES McLAUGHLIN,
Portobello,
Dublin 8.