How many of us think that unification is no longer a priority and don't really want unification ?

Personal view - I would like to see reunification not for any political reasons but because I think its daft that I driving along an hour up the road and then BOOM I somehow in a different country.

It makes no conceptual sense to me in that regard.

However, I'd have no interest in a unified Ireland that would alienate NI Protestants.

They didn’t fully Brexit and have slowly pushed closer to the EU since.

Listen to Allister Bryson howl at the moon trying to get WM to fully leave.

Maybe the onus is on them to easily de-alienate themselves. Maybe turn them big drums into wading pools for the kiddies. It’s as easy as peeling an orange…

There's always a scaremonger and this idea or analysis has got it's own one:

vote for a United Ireland and all the jobs and investment will go to Belfast

Better for who?

Because the real constraint in Ireland today is not growth. It is capacity. Housing, infrastructure and public services are all under sustained pressure in the same place. As any supply chain professional would recognise, once a bottleneck is reached, adding more demand does not increase output, it creates congestion.

 The issue is not simply whether the State can absorb a fiscal gap, but whether the economy can continue to function with only one dominant centre of growth.

 They are sometimes called "system archetypes", a way of describing patterns that tend to repeat. What we are seeing in Dublin closely resembles what is known as the "limits to growth/success" archetype, where early success begins to generate the very constraints that slow it down.

All the above are things that need to be addressed for the betterment of everyone on this island.
The answer is not 'I'm alright Jack' while you bury heads in the sand and scaremonger about trying to re- balance and raise all boats as a result. .

We could spend 100s of billions over decades trying to persuade several hundred thousand people to relocate to Cork and still never succeed - we're not a communist country, we cant force people to move. Yet we already have a ready made city that is big enough to counter balance Dublin on the island i.e. Belfast.

I wonder what Cork people think about several hundred thousand extra people being added to their city. Certainly wouldnt be Cork any more!

why so is Labour doing so poorly in the polls, and Reform doing so well?

So will the EU or the US pay for the investment in Belfast instead?

If it is to come from the UK or NI taxpayer, it should happen whether or not a united Ireland.

Otherwise, it has to come from the Irish taxpayer, and other projects will have to be cancelled.

Simply arithmetic.

You come up with a new plan, that rebalances the whole island for the betterment of ALL the people here and you put that before the people just like 2040 was. 'I'm alright Jackism' won't work and never did. It's one of the primary reasons why the north went up in flames to ALL our costs in the first place.

I don't disagree with you, but any new plan uses the same amount of money, and if the article is correct, and this money should be focussed on investment in Belfast, that means no Metrolink, no Cork Luas, no Galway bypass. At best, they are postponed for a couple of decades until the investment in Belfast makes a return.

That is what the article is saying if you read it fully and understand.

with all due respect @FrancieBrady , the only thing that survey could possibly show you is that the Windsor Agreement may not being perceived as being as beneficial as heretofore. That doesn't mean it actually isn’t, as it's only tracking voter perceptions.

Yet, when you look at the relative outperformance of the NI economy relative to the rest of the UK since this Agreement was put in place, those actual economic & empirical financial figures show it as being quite beneficial to date.

NI is now in a highly beneficial trading gateway position with a foot In both the UK & the EU, surely even the blooming Nordies can't mess that golden opportunity up!?

p.s. and if they do , they'll be a millstone around any countries neck that has to try to govern there

Indeed, "there's none so queer as folk'.

However, from just a cursory lookat your survey, it only showed a slight drop in perceived benefit , these attitudes can change back also.

And imho, the absolute best way for NI to improve it's lot is to grasp this dual jurisdiction trade gateway opportunity to the max , and try to ween itself off state subsidies & other retrograde, self defeating handouts which over the medium term only promote silly practices, make a false, state supported economy, & build in lack of competitiveness & inefficiency at every layer in society. Not good, so this is NI's golden opportunity at better. So take it & get on with it!!

Why?

Both population's electorates in the ROI & in NI both independently need to vote for constitutional change in their states. Currently I don't see the ROI electorate touching it with a bargepole tbh. And any move to change NIs status in the UK is still likely to flounder there also imho albeit for different reasons e.g. loyalty in NI, etc, etc, etc. It's simply not feasible.

No, it WAS a failed state. It remains to be seen whether the 'new' NI after the GFA realises it's unique opportunity to avail of the 'best of both worlds' in having access to both the UK and EU economically. Or to put it realistically, that having access to the EU market is actually the route to achieving a standalone entity.

Whether the truism of being connected to Ireland rather than the UK is going to be to the benefit of all is going to happen organically, talk of planning of such is a hindrance as that just riles.