An All-Ireland infrastructural plan, a single agency to channel investment across the island and a rapprochement between the different incentives systems, North and South, are among the suggestions of a survey published yesterday by Democratic Dialogue.
According to the report No Frontiers, produced in conjunction with Co-operation Ireland, the UCD Business School and the Combat Poverty Agency, the Belfast Agreement along with the Celtic Tiger provides an unprecedented opportunity.
It is the first substantial survey of how to maximise the benefits of North-South inter-relationships, and says integration can and should go much further than the 12 areas for co-operation and implementation outlined in the document.
The report stresses that new North-South structures should involve social partners as well as politicians and endorses the idea of a consultative North-South civic forum hinted at in the Belfast Agreement.
The study's conclusions derive from a North-South round table in Monaghan over two days in March, supported by the EU "peace package". It also suggests broadening the remit of the languages implementation body in the agreement to address broader issues of culture and reconciliation and stresses the role of all social organisations in making co-operation work on an all-Ireland basis.
As with European institutions, there is a need for the involvement of external expertise and No Frontiers proposes the bodies' approach should be based on problem-solving rather than negotiation.
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