The Taoiseach has announced the Government is to reconvene the cross-border Forum for Peace and Reconciliation.
It is part of a bid to build confidence in Northern Ireland and promote the full implementation of the Belfast Agreement, Mr Ahern said.
The forum will comprise part of "a general stock-taking and review of the political situation in regard to Northern Ireland". The first meeting of the restored forum will go ahead in Dublin Castle on November 27th.
But Mr Ahern said the move is complementary to other continuing activity to kick-start the Northern Ireland peace process.
The peace and reconciliation forum was established in 1994 by former taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds. It met on a regular basis at Dublin Castle until 1996, when it was suspended following the IRA bombing of London's Canary Wharf that broke the IRA ceasefire for a period of almost 18 months.
The forum assembled again after the restoration of the IRA ceasefire in 1997 but did not meet after that because of the demands of all-party talks leading up to the Belfast Agreement in 1998.
The organisation was never formally dissolved, and the Government has made financial provision for it annually.
Sinn Féin welcomed the announcement, but party chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin warned that it is not a substitute for all-party talks involving both the Irish and British governments and all the political parties.