Newstalk presenter says north would be a ‘financial millstone around our neck’ in a united Ireland

Newstalk presenter Ciara Kelly has said that a United Ireland would cost “billions and billions” and that the north would be like “a financial millstone” around the south’s neck.

Speaking on her breakfast show, the presenter and former GP made the comments in reaction to a new study from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) which examined income inequality in the north and south.

The study, which was published on behalf of the Taoiseach’s shared island unit, indicated that around four in five households in the north receive more in benefits than what they contribute in taxes, compared to three in five in the south.

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The presenter said that the first thing she thought of after seeing the report was what it would mean in a United Ireland.

“It’s going to cost us billions and billions and billions to unite with Northern Ireland,” she said.

“They are going to be a financial millstone around our neck.”

“Many people, I accept, out there this morning listening, will say, ‘It’s worth it, Four Green Fields’ and all that,” she added.

“But to me, do I want to be, personally, at this point in my life and my children at this point in their lives, sort of impoverished in order to do it?

“No, I don’t.”

While she said that she didn’t “have anything against a United Ireland” she said that it’s not something she cares about “in a passionate way”.

“I am what ardent Republicans refer to – and I know this – as a partitionist,” she said.

“That means that I have fully accepted the border – I have fully accepted that Northern Ireland exists as an entity in his own right.”

Ms Kelly said that she also wouldn’t want to make changes to a flag or national anthem to embrace unionists in a reunified Ireland, whilst acknowledging that it would be “the right thing to do”.

“I don’t want to pay more money and I don’t want to give up the tricolour,” she said.

“For me, it’s not worth it but I accept that I may be in a total minority.”

Her co-presenter, Shane Coleman, said that while taxes would ‘undoubtedly’ go up in a United Ireland, there could also be economic benefits to reunification.

A report released back in April of this year which suggested the cost of a United Ireland would be around €8bn (£6.65m) annually had been met with criticism by supporters of reunification.

Sinn Féin Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald had said that other research suggested reunification would boost an all-Ireland economy.

“Economic performance in the north has suffered enormously as a result of partition and more recently the negative impact of Brexit,” she said at the time.

“Reunification would best serve Ireland’s economic interests and would deliver economic and social benefits for the whole island.”