Varadkar: £400bn is small price for Irish unity
Former Dublin premier says cost of a projected fall in living standards should not stop a united Ireland
AN ESTIMATED cost of €400 billion over 20 years is a “small price to pay” for a united Ireland, Leo Varadkar has said in a farewell interview before his successor was appointed yesterday.
Simon Harris, dubbed the “Tiktok Taoiseach” because of his canny use of social media, officially took over from Mr Varadkar after being confirmed by the Irish parliament.
The centre-right Fine Gael politician is Ireland’s youngest-ever prime minister and now leads Ireland’s three-party governing coalition.
He has said that while a united Ireland is a legitimate goal it is not a priority for him at the moment.
Instead, the 37-year-old has vowed to fix Ireland’s housing crisis “once and for all” before elections in the next year.
Mr Varadkar, Ireland’s 14th Taoiseach and its leader during Brexit negotiations that Dublin feared threatened its single market membership, said unification should not be about cost after a study warned that living standards in the Republic would drop if Ireland unified. The April 4 report said it would cost Ireland more than £17 billion every year for two decades if Dublin immediately raised social security benefits and public sector wages in Northern Ireland, the poorest region of the UK, to match the rest of Ireland.
The Dublin-based Institute of International and European Affairs said taxation would have to be raised by a quarter and public spending slashed in Ireland, which is predicted to have a £56.3 billion budget surplus by 2027.
“I had a look at that report, and it’s based on certain assumptions and there are many variables, and that’s a potential cost. If you change the variables, the potential cost is a lot lower, but you know, I have to say, unification should never be about money,” Mr Varadkar, 45, told the RTE broadcaster.
“I don’t think when the Berlin Wall came down, people in West Germany ever considered not unifying their country because of [cost],” he said.
“An economic case can be made that would cost less and that we could grow our economy, and economic growth is the best way to generate wealth, but it shouldn’t be about that,” he added.
“If you believe in the unification of your country, three or four per cent of GDP is a small price to pay.”
Mr Varadkar, who sparked Unionist anger in Northern Ireland last September by saying he expected a united Ireland in his lifetime, said he had “no regrets” about his resignation, which became formal on Monday evening.
Last month, he said he was no longer the right person to lead Fine Gael in the elections.
Sinn Fein, the opposition party, wants a united Ireland and has led the polls since overtaking Fine Gael in 2020.
If Sinn Fein forms a government after the next election, it will lead the administrations in Dublin and in Stormont, where it is already the biggest party.
That is likely to give fresh impetus to its call for twin referendums on Irish reunification, which it has predicted will be held by 2030.