Member's statement: Northern Ireland Within the United Kingdom
Member's statement by Mr Jon Burrows on .
- MLA
- Mr Jon Burrows
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 13 October 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Northern Ireland Within the United Kingdom
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5175405
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The best place for the people of Northern Ireland is within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for our peace, prosperity, safety and security. That is something that the people of Northern Ireland need to hear more. Members may have watched the recent BBC 'Panorama' programme that reported on how international drug cartels exploit the weaknesses of the Irish Defence Forces to flood Ireland and, by extension, the United Kingdom and Europe with cocaine. To hear the drug traffickers say, "Avoid British waters and focus on Irish waters, because the Irish have radios, but the British have ships", is a stark reminder of how vulnerable we and the entire west of Europe would be under a united Ireland. Thankfully, we have membership of NATO — the fifth largest military force in the world —— and we all live under the protection of our intelligence services, GCHQ and police services. By being in the United Kingdom, we are safer from international terrorism, organised crime and, indeed, all the threats from countries such as North Korea, Iran, China and Russia. Furthermore, our peace is best protected in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland because there is an agreement that, largely speaking, has ended all violence. The republicans have given up and stood roundly defeated by the forces of law and order. Aside from the desperate remnants of dissidents, we now live in peace. To upset that by having a risky constitutional upheaval would be madness. We are also better off as part of the UK with its big, deep and broad economy. The fifth largest economy in the world, it is a member of the World Bank and the IMF and is able to set its own interest rates and to deal with the shocks of things such as COVID or the credit crunch. That is why this country was able to give a preferential loan of £3·25 billion to the Irish Republic at a time when it needed it, which showed that we are always benevolent neighbours of the Irish Republic. The reality is that having a domestic market of 70 million people over a domestic market of five million allows the price of a chicken to be £5 in Northern Ireland and €8 in the Republic of Ireland. Young people were here with us earlier. In the Irish Republic, they would need an extra £25,000 to get on the housing ladder. It being 38% more expensive to live down south more than wipes out any increase in pay, and there is a huge risk of an economic shock from a united Ireland. As people begin to listen to the false narratives around a united Ireland, they will soon hear the facts that you are better off in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
472 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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