Fine Gael debate on unification offered ‘every opinion under the sun’

The large lecture hall in the Western Gateway building in University College Cork’s campus had been dubbed the Fitzgerald Room for the weekend during the Fine Gael ardfheis.On Sunday afternoon it was filled to the gills for the meeting held to debate Fine Gael’s unification documents, which had been worked on since last May following the instruction of party leader Simon Harris to draft a blueprint for unity.The documents do not meet that threshold, though there is little doubt that the party has managed to put the debate about unity, and its opportunities and challenges, into a broader stream of conversation.Hard answers on a lot of questions are not possible, the party argues, such as the costs that would come with unification each year, or what would happen with the British responsibility for Northern Ireland pensions.READ MOREHowever, that is rather the point in the eyes of economist Stephen Kinsella, who put the costs of unification for the Irish exchequer in the first year between €3.5 billion and €20 billion.The final costs on unification, if it happens, will depend on the work that has been done in advance, and the efforts that can be made now and in the years ahead to boost Northern Ireland’s economy.Modelled on the New Ireland Forum of the 1980s, a standing committee should be created to be a home for debate and listening for all shades of opinion on the subject of unification.For months, Fine Gael members had gathered to debate the options, or even the desirability of unification – with every opinion under the sun being offered, said Minister of State Neale Richmond.Introducing the report, the chair of the working group that piloted the report, Emer Currie, talked of how as a teenager in Tyrone during the 1980s so much of the importance for her was that world unity by peaceful means would happen one day.[ Plans for united Ireland to examine how symbols and cultural policy need to changeOpens in new window ]However, her father Austin, a former leader of the SDLP, then moved to Dublin to become a Fine Gael TD, where Currie said she began to learn that the desires she held so fervently were not necessarily held in the same way south of the Border.The work done is but a first chapter, though a more detailed report will be brought before the Fine Gael parliamentary party late next year in advance of the party’s next ardfheis.Harris, however, mused that the work could and should begin more quickly, leaving open the possibility for talks with Fianna Fáil next year in advance of the changeover between him and Micheál Martin, or his successor, in the Taoiseach’s office.If Harris is right and work begins next year, not after the next election, then Harris and Martin will have to agree terms and conditions in a world where Martin has long believed cautious, slow steps are necessary.However, that line proved not to be holdable, which led him to propose ideas a week in advance of the ardfheis that would see a group set up to look at all options – including a continuing place in the UK union for Northern Ireland.If many of the questions have not been answered, there is little doubt that the weekend in Cork has put the subject of unity firmly on the radar for that element of the southern vote who are ready to become involved.