A "significant amount" of integration, co-ordination and harmonisation of policy will be required if cross-Border economic co-operation is to be successful, the Taoiseach said yesterday.
Speaking in Belfast, Mr Ahern stressed the need for "action at the level of the island of Ireland". He said the lesson had been learned in the Republic that the "positive intervention of those exercising executive responsibilities" and of public agencies carrying out executive functions, was required in determining and driving policy and in implementing it.
He added that cross-Border co-operation had been developing strongly over the past 10 or 12 years, and that it was entirely appropriate to reap the benefits that could flow, at regional level, from co-operation such as in fisheries in the Foyle basin or in the provision of health services in the northwest.