By Máirtín Ó Muilleoir

Former President Mary Robinson didn't miss and hit the wall last month when she decried "an absence of vision" in Irish government circles as the state grapples with the economic recession. Perhaps because her comments were made at the Béal na mBláth commemoration in honour of Michael Collins, they went largely unheeded by the powers-that-be. Nowhere is that clearer than at this week's gathering of the Irish diaspora in Dublin for the Global Irish Economic Forum.

It may be global but it certainly ain't national, for the North of Ireland, and the decade-long commitment to an all-island economy, has been all but sidelined from the weighty deliberations of the 180 invited luminaries. In many ways, this initiative represents the Irish government picking up the baton from the North's economic agency Invest NI which brought powerful friends of Ireland in the US to Belfast in May 2008 for a conference to look at ways of cementing the peace with jobs.

Roiled by turbulent economic waters, Invest NI hesitated to organise a follow-up to that successful initiative, leaving the path clear for the Irish government to step in with its Global Forum. Some will argue that the blind eye to the North is tit-for-tat for the fact that the Northern conference didn't give due regard to the compelling arguments for Ireland to operate as one all-island economic unit.

For example, there were no field visits across the border at the Invest NI confab. But then the DUP were co-hosts of that conference so the conversion to the gospel of an all-island economic approach is going to be slow. There's no such excuse for the Irish government, however. Would it have been that difficult to bring some of these powerful business allies of Ireland to Fermanagh for a half-day to see the powerful strides forward being made in breaching the border with innovative business models? Or schlepping up the brand-new motorway to Ireland's second city to see the burgeoning Gaeltacht Quarter and Cathedral Quarter of a resurgent Belfast?

Apparently so, for in a circle-the-wagons-move that John Wayne would applaud, the conference doesn't even list Northern Ireland as an agenda item.

Dynamic - Hard to believe that it's only a few short months since Taoiseach Brian Cowen opined: "The only way forward is to develop the all-island economy to its fullest potential. "The growing dynamic of the all-island economy and North/South cooperation can make a vital contribution to the economic recovery."

But with the lead government party deeply troubled by its plummeting popularity and "mé féiners' in the business community in the South of Ireland protesting at contracts going to Northern companies, the Irish government is now backtracking on its commitment to the all-island economy – despite the fact that it is the best way forward for people right across the island.

We were, mind you, forewarned.

Fianna Fáil's point man on a United Ireland, Martin Mansergh TD, told a conference in June that a United Ireland would have to be put on the back-burner. "It is hardly the moment to press claims to the North which we have renounced, and, it has to be said, the advantages and flexibility of joining up with a small sovereign state in the present global turmoil are for the moment a lot less compelling today than they were two or three years ago," he said.
Timid- Thank goodness Irish America isn't as timid: Next month's Gateways to Tomorrow conference in Boston (hosted by the Irish Echo) will include contributions from Donegal and Derry councils as well as Minister Conor Murphy from Belfast and Minister Noel Dempsey from Dublin. Anyone with the vision to see past this recession would realise that the peaceful way to unite Ireland is by promoting the all-island economy.

But then, as Mary Robinson said, vision is not the Irish government's strong suit.

(Mairtin O'Muilleoir is publisher of the Irish Echo newspaper in New York and the Belfast Media Group titles in Belfast, Ireland.)