We need an all-Ireland economy now more than ever, Henry McDonald

Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty (Donegal), Sinn Féin Vice-President Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin) and Minister for Regional Development Conor Murphy (Newry & Armagh) at the launch of the United Ireland Task Force

THERE have been for many years now journalists and opinion columnists in Ireland and Britain who just don’t like Sinn Féin. I get it. It is not for them. They either fear the politics of the party, are opposed to the ideas of socialist republicanism, don’t agree with the Sinn Féin interpretation, or perhaps just can’t move past the years of conflict in Ireland and have decided to revise history into a world where Irish republicans were the only ones involved in a war on this island.

I don’t know which of these camps Guardian and Observer journalist Henry McDonald falls into, maybe none. But he is angry and he doesn’t like the party.

Henry has written about Sinn Féin and the prospects of a united Ireland. Short version is that Sinn Féin suddenly have better prospects in the 26 Counties after being "totally irrelevant" but that this does not mean that there will be political and economic unity on this island. This is, he claims, "counter factual".

The facts for Henry are that there are two currency regimes on the island, that the 26 Counties is broke and that the Six-County economy is dependent on British subventions.

Surely, though, this is an argument for economic integration and the creation of an island economy. The old way of partition is untenable. Two tax regimes, two currencies, and needless competition between two small peripheral regions is costing taxpayers money and frustrating economic growth.

What if we had one VAT rate on the island and a common customs and excise regime?

What if we had one healthcare system with pooled resources and without unnecessary duplication?

What if we had an island wide telecommunications strategy, with the roll-out of high speed broadband to all the island?

Surely that approach would save money in the long run.

According to the most recent employment statistics for the island, 2,637,000 people are working with another 510,662 people unemployed.

The critical issue underpinning this is the need to have economic policy strategies for all these the Irish workers. We need to have economic development agencies working together promoting and developing Irish business. The more indigenous Irish businesses trading with each other there, the more jobs we can create.

We need to be able to put the best expertise into entrepreneurs, the needed funding, aid and investment, whether they live in Ballymena or Ballymun or Ballyhaunis.

Much work has been done since the Good Friday Agreement was adopted by voters North and South in the single most important act of democratic participation on this island.

In particular, the work of InterTradeIreland stands out, linking businesses, investors, third-level education institutions and many other economic and social groups into strategies of all-island co-ordination.

This has been a fact of life for 10 years. The island economy is happening – slower than Sinn Féin and many others would like, and yes there are big hurdles to be jumped – but one thing is clear: the solution to the economic problems gripping the island were never found in silo thinking, whether it is in Westminster, Dublin or in the mind of a Guardian columnist.

It is found in jointly tackling the common problems in economic inequalities and underdevelopment impeding the potential of this island.

Who doesn’t think talking, negotiating and planning for a more efficient, equal and dynamic island economy by the democratically-elected representatives on the island is a good idea? Henry?