The Northern Ireland Executive in Stormont is already heavily reliant on the rest of the UK to keep it afloat. Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images
In recent years, the Irish Government has failed to control expenditure, continually exceeding planned outlays, but because of the corporation tax bonanza there has been no crisis.
Though this is a bad way to manage the public finances, so far the Government has got away with it.
North of the Border, the Northern Ireland Executive has also been spending substantially more than the resources allocated to it. However, to date, it has avoided the most serious consequences, as London has picked up the tab for the overruns.
This now looks about to change, meaning that
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