The key to securing the support of southern voters for a united Ireland is the abolition of academic selection, according to a leading Dublin-based economist.
John FitzGerald, adjunct professor of economics at Trinity College Dublin and the son of former taoiseach Garret FitzGerald, believes there is “zero” prospect of a border poll in the next decade and he claims that if there were a referendum it’s likely the Republic’s electorate would vote ‘No’.
Interviewed by The Irish News about the current appetite in the Republic for a border poll, he argues that in order to win the support for unity in the south it’s necessary “to make Northern Ireland work”.
Mr FitzGerald, who stresses that he’s “neutral” on the constitutional question, says the “single most important thing to do” in this regard is to reform the north’s education system by ending academic selection.
He suggests it will be decades before the move “pays off” but that it would make southern voters more amenable to unification.
The impact of reform of the Republic’s education system in the late 1960s became apparent some 30 years later, the academic says.
The introduction in the south of what became known as the free education scheme in 1967 saw a significant increase in the numbers attending post-primary schools.
While there is no state policy of academic selection in the Republic, some schools do have entrance tests and research has found that the education system benefits those from more affluent backgrounds.
Mr FitzGerald says other impediments to unity exist, such as “infrastructure deficits”, the “pollution of Lough Neagh” and the “decision by the parties in Northern Ireland not to raise taxes and to instead go for a low tax economy within the United Kingdom”.
However, he insists that ending the “right-wing, Thatcherite” policy of academic selection is the key to securing the support of southern voters for a united Ireland.
“If you’re looking for a united Ireland, you’ve got to make Northern Ireland work, so that there isn’t going to be this huge problem from unification,” he told The Irish News.
“And the single most important thing to do, and it’ll take 20 to 30 years before it pays off, is reform the Northern Ireland educational system, so that it stops failing 60% of kids at the age of 11, as it does at present.
“It (academic selection) is a disaster; it is an incredibly right wing; it’s a Thatcherite approach.”
Mr FitzGerald argues reform of the northern education system is necessary in order that it can integrate with the Republic’s in the advent of unity – otherwise he says it would be a “recipe for disaster”.
“To preside over a system in Northern Ireland where there is not equality of opportunity in Northern Ireland that would be inimical to all parties in the Republic,” he says.
“So Northern Ireland has to reform itself, rather than wait to be reformed by the people of the Republic.”