Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Professor FitzGerald for being here. I read his report with interest, as always. The committee is looking at constitutional change and has almost concluded its economic section. We thought it was important to bring Professor FitzGerald back today to talk about the most recent paper. Obviously, we will have others in to comment on it too.

It is difficult to understand how such strong conclusions were reached, especially considering the narrow focus of the work Professor FitzGerald has done. In fairness, it is stated that the report takes “no account is taken of the wider economic effects of Irish unification” even though these would “have major implications for the public finances”. It also states that there will be an ”immediate major reduction in their living standards”. I was really shocked to read such a conclusion. We know the biggest impact on our living standards was in the 2008 crash with the banks here. We saw how that failed to be predicted even though all the signs such as the over-reliance on construction and all that were there. My first question is how can Professor FitzGerald make such a claim?

I want to go into some specifics around the figures first and then we will look at education and some of the benefits. Professor FitzGerald includes the cost of increasing all public sector wages to southern norms from the outset, costing €4.2 billion per year, but he does not seem to allow for any tax or PRSI contribution on such an increase which would really reduce the cost. I think it would reduce it by about half to €2 billion per annum. Why did he not do that? Does that not skew the first element in the context of public sector wages?