The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, plans to develop political, trade and cultural links between Ireland and Scotland as part of the Belfast Agreement, he said in Glasgow on Saturday.
Mr Ahern said the British-Irish council to be set up - the council of the isles - would not be "the Cinderella" of a complex new set of relations that include an assembly in Belfast, and a North-South Irish ministerial council.
In particular he envisaged holding regular, perhaps biannual, meetings with the first minister of the newly elected parliament in Edinburgh. He also anticipated similar meetings on a wide range of common policy interests involving Irish government ministers with office holders in the Scottish parliament.
The Taoiseach attended the Celtic v St Johnstone match and then had separate meetings with the Secretary of State for Scotland, Mr Donald Dewar, the leader of the Scottish National Party, Mr Alex Salmond, and the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Thomas Winning.
Later the Taoiseach was the guest of honour at a dinner hosted by the former Celtic director, Mr Brian Dempsey, which Cardinal Winning, former Ireland and Celtic goalkeeper, Packie Bonnar, and political and business figures attended.
Mr Ahern said the council of the isles framework would allow scope for building relations with Scotland. "With Scottish devolution and constitutional changes this allows for the forging of an entirely new relationship."
The Taoiseach said the Ireland of 1920, which paved the way for partition, resulted in the weakening of direct Scottish-Irish relations at a political level. "There was no direct contact at parliamentary or government level with the Scots," he added. "We would have met Scottish MPs in the context of Westminster, of course, but not on the basis we can now build up.