The potential for developing North-South co-operation is "greater than any of us envisaged" and "a real momentum" has built up in recent months, the Taoiseach said in Newman House, Dublin, last night.
Bertie Ahern was speaking at the launch of Crossing the Border: New Relationships between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland,edited by John Coakley and Liam O'Dowd.
The book is based on the Mapping Frontiers research project involving UCD, Queen's University, Belfast and the Centre for Cross-Border Studies in Armagh.
Recalling that in the early days of the project in 2005 he described North/South co-operation as one of the quiet successes of the Good Friday agreement, he said that "three years later, we inhabit a greatly changed political landscape that gives us even greater cause for optimism".
"With the restoration of the Northern Assembly and Executive in May last year, and the institutions operating as was always envisaged, the potential for developing North-South co-operation has been greater than any of us envisaged."