Almost 40% of farmers believe Brexit will make a united Ireland more likely, with Sinn Féin responding to the finding by saying “the logic of the all-Island economy is unassailable and a United Ireland is inevitable”.
The UK’s departure from the EU has cast a shadow across Ireland’s agricultural sector, with it named as the area most likely to be hit economically once Brexit becomes a reality.
In the Irish Examiner/ICMSA opinion poll, 38% of respondents said they believe Brexit makes the prospect of a united Ireland more likely, while 41% disagree. Some 21% of those questioned said they neither agreed nor disagreed.
Men are much more likely to believe that a united Ireland is a more likely prospect due to Brexit than women (40% vs 28%). Older farmers aged 65 and above are also less likely to view it as a likely prospect (32%) than their younger peers.
Last weekend, Sinn Féin’s presidential candidate Liadh Ní Riada said a united Ireland should be on the agenda in light of Brexit and the party’s Brexit spokesman David Cullinane said: “It is very clear that the solution for Ireland is an all-island one. The North and South must remain in the EU. The North and South must remain in the customs union and single market.
It is also vital for farmers North and South to continue to have full alignment of standards and rules as currently provided for in the EU single market. It is not in the interests of farmers on any part of the island to have different standards and rules applying either side of the border.
“Nor is it in the interests of farmers to have any added disruption to the movement of livestock and other goods and services across the border.”
Economist Prof John FitzGerald of Trinity College Dublin has calculated a united Ireland could reduce income and living standards by as much as 15%.