Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has called for a border poll on partition and Irish unity during the lifetime of the next Northern Ireland Assembly.
Launching his party's campaign on the issue, Mr Adams insisted a single economy would be good for prosperity jobs and investment.
The Good Friday Agreement allows for a referendum within Northern Ireland on unity - the so-called border poll.
Sinn Féin has now stepped up its campaign for the plebiscite.
Speaking at a special conference in Dublin, Mr Adams told delegates that the Northern state had been gerrymandered to allow for a permanent Unionist majority.
However, he said the latest census figures showed only 40% of people there claimed an exclusively British identity.
He maintained that was evidence that the political and demographic landscape was changing.
Mr Adams also said that the real cost of the British government’s subvention was much less that the gross figure of £17bn.
He insisted that a single all-Ireland economy would be good for jobs, prosperity and would transform the political, as well as the economic, landscape.
