February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The forum, which is being billed as an inaugural gathering, will be held September 18-20.
“The primary purpose of the forum will be to examine how the Irish, at home and abroad, can work together to generate ideas which will contribute to our overall efforts at economic recovery. It will also play a critical role in shaping the future direction of the relationship between Ireland and its diaspora, particularly in the economic area,” Martin said.
“Our global Irish community constitutes one of the most powerful and far-reaching resources at our disposal and, using our worldwide network of embassies and consulates, we have identified some of the most successful individuals from that global community.
“They will bring with them an invaluable global perspective. To help facilitate discussion, a relatively small and tightly focused group of individuals is being invited,” said Martin.
Invitations to the Farmleigh gathering will be personal ones from Taoiseach Brian Cowen.
The forum announcement comes against the backdrop of economic news that falls between grim and grimmer. Unemployment in the Republic rose to 11.4 percent in April. That’s 388,600 people drawing unemployment benefits.
The latest quarterly report from the Economic and Social Research Institute predicted that unemployment would reach almost 17 percent next year. Separately, the European Commission has predicted the Irish economy will shrink by nine percent this year.
Meanwhile, Irish entrepreneurs are issuing invitations to the New York business community for a conference this week to explore ways out of the economic morass.
The “Tangible Ireland” conference will take place in the New York Athletic Club on Thursday, May 7. Participants will include attorney John J. Reilly of Holland and Knight, Lori Heinel of Citi and Bill Harvey of Eastern Consolidated.
The half-day gathering will include a lunch sponsored by the Presidents’ Club of Belfast.
“We are going to brainstorm our present economic difficulties and how we can best re-energize the economies of the United States and the island of Ireland,” said organizer Raymond Sexton. Details on the event are available from www.tangibleireland.com.