Has Micheál Martin been bought? Or is he working for the English for free? Macdara fears that the latter is the more likely proposition—at least if he was bought, his behaviour would be understandable, but he is likely exhibiting merely the compulsory irrationality of Partitionism. Let us use this strange man as a study.

But first: we are accustomed to the makey-uppy estimates on the costs of running Occupied Ireland, notably those handed out by the occupiers themselves; the London Government engages in obviously creative accounting to apportion a share of its own military costs, amongst other specious items, to Occupied Ireland, thereby vastly increasing the apparent cost of the Six Counties. 

As against such exercises in cynicism and misdirection, scholars at Dublin City University have provided the first peer-reviewed report on Reunification. Its findings, reported in The Journal: 

A UNITED IRELAND would cost €3bn in the first year, but any financial burdens would disappear within a decade[.]

The report quotes the Professor responsible for the study contrasting his work with the gross Exaggerations of the £14bn per annum estimates of the Occupiers themselves. Or the extravagant claim that Reunification would cost up to €20bn per annum for 20 years, made by a Partionist think-tank—the report’s co-author is the son of an undistinguished Fine Gael taoiseach, grandson and husband of undistinguished Government Ministers—claims so wild and unsupportable that even representatives of the Establishment voiced their disagreement with them.

Macdara must put this in the context of the State’s finances, using figures released by the Central Statistics Office in April (reporting on 2024).

The general government balance shows a surplus of €23.2 billion, or 4.3% of GDP in 2024, almost treble the surplus of €7.9 billion recorded in 2023.

Total government revenue increased to €148.3 billion, €24.5 billion higher than 2023.

Total government expenditure also increased to €125.1 billion, a €9.2 billion increase on the year before.

So not only is the cost of Reunification for the first year tiny compared to the State’s revenue, but it in fact comes to about one-eighth of the spare money available to the Government last year. Of course this is to leave aside the question of whether the cost actually matters, compared with the benefit of removing the cultural, social, political harm of The Border, but we must combat all of their lies, including on matters financial.
In any case, your correspondent suggests that the money be set aside now, before the State returns to the Penury to which the Partionists are so addicted.