Diarmuid MacShane

This is probably a little off-topic for ValueIreland.com, but over the week just gone I found myself thinking a fair bit about what  happened at Farmleigh at the Global Irish Economic Conference, or more particularly what wasn’t happening at Farmleigh.

This event received some coverage while it was on, but on the whole, I think that it pretty much passed most of the Irish population by. I personally listened to, and read, any coverage that was immediately to hand, but didn’t go looking for any in depth coverage.

So, cards on the table first of all – the main things I read about it were the list of attendees and some other blurb on the website, the comments from Michael O’Leary on what he thought about the conference, and Brendan Hughes review on his blog regarding his experiences at the conference over the weekend. The Irish Times also has had some good coverage in the past week.

Sceptical about outcomes

Apparently, there are 5 “business plans” that have come out of the weekends private discussions (therefore any indepth analysis of the weekend was pretty much stifled) at the conference which are to be taken on by the Taoiseach and submitted to his Innovation policy group.

If, as has been mentioned and widely ridiculed on Twitter, one of these business plans is to be an “Ireland Portal”, then I can only repeat my comparison of the usefulness of this conference to the recent Ideas Campaign. Where the Ideas Campaign was pitched as being for the plain people of Ireland, the GIEC was instead for the more important (richer or more powerful) Irish people, many of whom don’t either live or work in Ireland, and don’t experience our current difficulties on a daily basis.

Where the Ideas Campaign didn’t allow any negativity or whinging, the GIEC had its own version of preventing any valid reviews of it’s deliberations – it didn’t allow the general public or the press any access to hear any of the discussions.

Talking shop for the great and the good

From the start of the weekend, I have to admit that my scepticism of what might happen at Farmleigh could be best explained by the same reason why Michael O’Leary declined to attend the conference – it was in his (and my own) opinion, likely to be no more than a talking shop amongst the usual “in-crowd”.

You can see the list of attendees at the conference here – the supposed great and the good of the Irish diaspora. But look closer – I know who I’d like more to have an input into a “business plan” on the future of the country if it came down to a decision between Michael O’Leary or Cathal Goan of RTE (strangely present as also pointed out by Kevin Myers), as an example. It was inspiring also, to see a number of property developers in the list of attendees as well – including one at least that I expect will be bailed out by the government through NAMA.

Many names you won’t recognise at all, so you’d have to wonder how great or how good they actually are – or if they’re just there because of their networking skills and contacts, or their generous contributions to some one, or some cause, or some thing.

One attendee I noticed is employed as a “vice president” with an American institution where you’re pretty much awarded this level as long as you put in 4 or 5 years service – this person has been there 11 years and has moved no higher. The great and the good indeed!

The Diaspora don’t live here – get over it

This conference was initiated, I believe, by David McWilliams. I read much of what Mr. McWilliam writes for the newspapers but I haven’t read his books. His fascination with the Irish diaspora is something that I don’t really understand, though I do have a lot of time for much of his writing.

One of the supposed suggestions from the weekend was to provide “global citizenship” to the estimated 80m Irish diaspora across the world. This, apparently, is designed to “cement identity and invites the holder to experience the homeland at least once in their lives” according to Brendans comments.

There’s a reason why the Irish diaspora don’t live in Ireland, or why they don’t want to visit Ireland – just look around you!

I can’t speak for everyone, but you only have to look at our weather, our standard of government, our leaching civil and public service, our governments helplessness in our current dire economic situation, our countries poor infrastructure, our comparatively overpriced hotels, restaurants and poor customer service, and many other problems that this country has to realise why people would rather live in southern California, Hong Kong, New York or anywhere else other than Ireland at the moment. Giving the diaspora a passport isn’t going to increase the likelihood of either their moving here permanently, or even visiting, at the moment.

The focus of the GIEC was on the Irish diaspora with the odd hanger on from inside Ireland as well – but all the usual suspects. You can give a small amount of credit to David McWilliams at least for trying something, but as I said above, the focus on the diaspora is misguided.

The missed opportunity

If you’re looking for people who want, and need, to see Ireland turn itself around as quickly as possible, but also who have the kind of international experience that the government seems so keen on “tapping”, then why are we not looking to the people who have made the commitment to Ireland that the diaspora have not, and probably won’t make?

In the past number of years, thousands of Irish people who have lived and worked across the world – some for long periods of time – and many side by side in the large multi-national corporations with the attendees at Farmleigh over the weekend, have all returned home to live and work and bring up their families in Ireland.

Continually ignoring the opportunities

For many, after successful careers abroad, the returning Irish emigrants are trying to assimilate back into Irish life. For many it’s a struggle.

Brendan Landers put some of the difficulties very elegantly in a recent piece in the Irish Times. Others will give you examples of how returning emigrants are overlooked for jobs because Irish companies tell them that they “don’t know how things are done in Ireland” – despite their having the international expertise that our government supposedly craves so much.

More will relate experiences of how years of experience abroad counts little when many Irish companies are considering hiring returned emigrants – trying to find work in Ireland could almost be likened to starting all over again.

Our government is falling over itself to bring together a group of Irish people who are living and working abroad, yet there is a another group of people who have done all this and still moved home to Ireland. This group of people have the same experiences as the diaspora, but have the added experience and knowledge of what it’s actually like to live and work in Ireland as well.

Surely such a combination of knowledge is vastly more useful to a government trying to turn things around – but then again, this is a government who turns to consultants to sort most things out rather than working with those that actually have an indepth knowledge of what’s really going on.

The greatest irony of all this is that if these very same people who are now living and working in Ireland had stayed away in London, Hong Kong, New York or Tokyo, they would now be courted by the Irish government and David McWilliams because they’d be seen as having the answers to Irelands problems.

Yet by showing a real commitment to Ireland and a belief in what Ireland can provide to them and their families, these people are in most instances ignored completely at a time when they could be the countries greatest asset at the present time.

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