Sinn Fein’s ‘creative accountancy’ over funding the gap for a United Ireland

SubsidySo, briefly, Newton Emerson gives us confirmation of what you probably already knew from listening to Gerry Adams talking to Tara Mills in last week’s big interview on Sinn Fein’s #BorderPoll. That is that the party’s figures simply do not add up.

In yesterday’s Irish News he noted:

It is true that DFP’s last report showed revenue rising to 12.7bn but the same report showed public spending rising to £23.2bn, so the £10bn gap remains. Mr Adams tried to muddy this by referring to our share of UK defence and debt but he forgot that our UK defence contribution is only £1.1bn, our share o the Irish Defence Forces budget would be £300m and our debt would go with us into a united Ireland.

He goes on to note that that the total amount of corporation tax generated in Northern Ireland is £775m, so that if there is a downward swing in the real figure it is likely that ‘the real funding gap for Irish unity may be closer to £8bn than £10, but it is nowhere near £5bn, let alone “significantly less”.

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