The Alliance Party wants an official figure to be produced for the annual cost to taxpayers of Northern Ireland’s divided society.

Having this number to hand could transform political debates, just as discussions on a united Ireland or on devolution often revolve around the £10 billion (€11.5 billion) subvention from Britain or Stormont’s £19 billion block grant. Even when such figures are disputed, they keep conversation focused on fact and detail, when it might otherwise be dominated by futile arguments about grievance and identity.

What Alliance is proposing would be as authoritative as a national statistic.

The party is bringing an amendment to a Bill at Stormont that would require “the costs of duplicated public service provision” to be published by the Northern Ireland Fiscal Council, the expert body that reports on the public finances and advises the executive on its budget.

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