EP24: Republic of Ireland / Northern Ireland - Who is better off?

In this episode of Money & Plants, it is the first, of what I hope to have, in terms of a number of conversations with people, discussing the whole idea of a United Ireland, and all of what that might contain.  The constitutional question surrounding Northern Ireland has very much raised it's head with an incredible amount of intensity, ever since the BREXIT result for the UK to leave as a block, from the European Union.   This despite the fact that the majority of people in Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU.  This alone was always going to unnerve many people, and over the last few years, we have started to see alot of the things, that so many people warned against, starting to play out. Seamus Mc Guinness is an academic, a reserach professor at ESRI and an adjunct Professor at University College Dublin.  In the last twelve months, Seamus and his colleague Adele Bergin have released two papers around the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland, and also a body of work which has compared living standards between people who live in Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. In this conversation I talk in detail to Seamus around some of his findings, and without giving the game away in this intro, all I will say is that the Republic of Ireland's economy has been transformed over the last thirty years, and this has led to that society being transformed in that timeframe. Most people accept there is going to be a unity referendum in N Ireland in the next number of years, so that means, these kinds of conversations are so important, as they allow us to separate FACT from FICTION. One of the concerns I have in the upcoming years is the fake news campaigns which will be in full swing to campaign for the different outcomes to any polls.  We must all do what we can to not allow this to happen.  In this podcast, I will be doing my very best to be only facilitating conversations which have been fact checked and can therefor add value to people, and help them understand the process which is currently evolving. I hope you find this podcast interesting, educational and even inspiring in parts. If you have any questions around any of this or another matter, best place to get me is [email protected]  I would encourage you to follow Seamus on twitter and check out his last two papers on this topic. Finally thanks to the sponsors of this week's podcast GDP Partnership www.gdpni.com  In the meantime, have a great Easter, and make sure you look after yourself, and each other. CD