\u201cWe’ve run symposiums and consultations all across the country – we’ve done it in the United States of America, Australia and in Britain,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, as a political party, we have to be generating that conversation, generating those ideas.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut just remember, it is the Irish State that is a party to the Good Friday Agreement and only the government in Dublin can actually produce a green paper that sets out all of the opportunities, all of the different areas of work that need to happen by way of preparation for the referendum.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Sinn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/G637NK.jpg\")
Gerry Adams holds a copy of the Good Friday Agreement. Picture by: Alamy.com.<\/p>\n
According to the British Office for National Statistics, \u00a321.5 billion in tax revenue was raised in Northern Ireland in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, \u00a336.0 billion in spending was assigned to the province by the agency, which includes spending on the North\u2019s devolved services – such as health, education and transport.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The figure also assigns Northern Ireland a share of the cost of maintaining reserved services – such as Britain\u2019s Armed Forces, security agencies, embassies, foreign aid budget and Royal Family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The difference between tax revenue raised in the province and the tax revenue spent is often called a \u2018subvention\u2019 and means average public spending per head of population in Northern Ireland was \u00a316,116 in 2024\/25 – higher than a UK average of \u00a313,504.<\/p>\n
Deputy McDonald described the subvention as \u201coften very, very overstated\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s overstated to include things like pensions, defence spending and so on and so forth,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s up to us to explain and set out the numbers of it, that actually this is affordable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1179138.jpg\")
Parliament Buildings on the Stormont Estate. Picture by: PA Archive\/PA Images.<\/p>\n
When asked if she believed the British Government should continue to pay the pensions of those living in the province in the event of reunification, Deputy McDonald said the British State would have a duty to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you have plenty of people who live in this jurisdiction, on this island, who draw their pension from Britain,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the British Government would have to honour their obligations in respect of payments that have been made and contributions made to pension funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the way, post-Brexit, I think the evidence was that, in fact, the British State did honour its obligations in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scottish pensions<\/p>\n
In 2022, the leader of the Scottish National Party at Westminster, Ian Blackford, said that the British State would \u2018retain an obligation\u2019 to pay for Scottish pensions if Scotland became independent, adding there were \u201cno ifs, there\u2019s no buts about that\u201d.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s then-Pensions Minister Guy Opperman described the claim as \u201cmisleading\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Scotland chooses to become a foreign country, then working English, Welsh and Northern Irish taxpayers should not pay for a foreign country\u2019s pension liabilities,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat has been the settled position of the UK Government since before the 2014 [Scottish independence] referendum.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Blackford later announced that an independent Scotland would \u201ctake responsibility for pensions in Scotland\u201d.<\/p>\n
Main image: Sinn F\u00e9in president Mary Lou McDonald. Picture by: Alamy.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mary Lou McDonald has said the British Government will have to \u201chonour their obligations\u201d and pay for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,61,60,174,175],"class_list":["post-535710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}