“Let’s go on a journey and forget about the destination”, was how Brian Cowen described the Belfast Agreement’s “genius” for getting everyone working together towards opposing constitutional goals.

There was quiet wincing when the taoiseach said this in 2010, and when he repeated it in his final speech to the Dáil a year later. Some considered it trite or cynical, or both. But its cheesy wisdom has since been demonstrated by the Shared Island Initiative, a clearly nationalist project that has won cross-community acceptance by not declaring its destination.

Cowen has been vindicated again, this time in the negative, by Fine Gael’s blueprint for a unified island, launched at its party conference last weekend.

The blueprint’s good ideas for co-operation will go nowhere precisely because they declare a destination. Its key proposal is to begin developing an all-Ireland economy now through cross-Border development agencies, infrastructure investment and other economic links.

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This is to be arranged through the North-South Ministerial Council (NSMC) of the Belfast Agreement, which runs the........

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