Pain and gain in the new economic order

YOUR columnist Fergus Finlay (August 28) outlined the implications of closer cross-border arrangements flowing from the Belfast Agreement and its aftermath.

A former senior civil servant in Northern Ireland, Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, at the Merriman Summer School, called for politicians and other opinion-makers “to think long and hard about the true nature, cost, ethos and dynamics of a new orientation of affairs” in Northern Ireland.

Predictable but simplistic reactions to his speech focused on the reference to some form of Irish unity in future.

Mr Finlay’s column, however, should spark discussion about the wider effects of closer co-operation between both jurisdictions in Ireland. Pain as well as gain are inevitable.

Negative reactions to possible economic losses in a region of this State from the Aer Lingus move to Belfast do not augur well for rational and balanced debate.

Tony Quinn

Saval Park Road

Dalkey

Co Dublin