IBEC has called on the Government to undertake a major initiative to shape Ireland's strategic economic and social priorities as a millennium project. Mr Peter Brennan, a director of the employers' organisation, said that Ireland's Stability Programme and the National Development Plan, the successor agreement to Partnership 2000, were all very useful and important but their visions were limited in time and their scope and purposes quite different.

"What is missing is common long-term vision, with an indicative budget to match, as to what is best for all sections of the Irish economy," he told the Forum 2000 business seminar yesterday.

Mr Brennan said that living in uncertain times was a fact of life but, with foresight, problems could be minimised. He identified the recent downturn in the global economy as among the challenges facing the Irish economy.

The arrival of cheap imports from the troubled economies of the Far East will make the European marketplace even more competitive while deflation was also a real threat, he said.