Professor John FitzGerald:

Education is crucial. It is very hard to see a large enough contribution from Europe to make a difference. Given that Ireland will still be one of the richest countries in Europe, we cannot expect the rest of Europe to subsidise Ireland when we have chosen to unify. It is unlikely, although it is possible. The UK could be very generous but, as I said, if they are very generous with Ireland, that has major implications in terms of Scotland. They were not that generous initially in 1922. If we look at the break-up of the Soviet Union, the assets and liabilities were shared out in the agreement at Almaty in Kazakhstan in 1991, and Ukraine got quite a number of Russian embassies as part of the deal. That is what has happened in the past in break-ups. Who knows? We do not know for certain but we just think it unlikely.