The push for rapid political progress in advance of February's potential crisis over weapons decommissioning will continue in London on Friday following yesterday's successful inauguration of the new North-South Ministerial Council.
The Taoiseach and three ministers are to travel to London on Friday for inaugural meetings of the British-Irish Council and the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. Meanwhile, a series of bilateral meetings between ministers and their Northern counterparts will begin early in the new year.
Government sources say they expect all Northern Ireland Executive members to have met their Dublin counterparts before the end of January. However there may be some dispute over the status of any such meetings involving the two DUP executive members, as they have said they will discuss matters of mutual interest with their southern counterparts, but not under the auspices of the North-South Ministerial Council.
The Government is anxious to see maximum political activity in the new institutions over the next few months. This is an attempt to ensure that these institutions will endure beyond the February deadline set by the Ulster Unionist Council for weapons decommissioning to take place.
Describing yesterday's first meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council as "the biggest thing that has happened in my political life", Mr Ahern insisted he was confident weapons decommissioning would take place. "We are not going to do all this and then go back," he said.
After yesterday's meeting - attended by the entire Cabinet and 10 of the Northern Ireland executive members - Mr Ahern maintained there would be no going back to the era of non-co-operation between the Republic and Northern Ireland. "For too long, conflict and political division led us to turn our backs on one another, rather than deal face to face," he said. "That era is now over, and today marks its end."
Mr Ahern said the occasion was unlike any other he had witnessed. "It is unprecedented in my political career. It is the first time elected ministers from both parts of Ireland have gathered in one room to work for the common good of all our people."
The Taoiseach and the Tanaiste travelled to Armagh yesterday in an Air Corps helicopter. The rest of the Cabinet met in Monaghan before crossing the Border in a convoy of State cars. Asked why it was necessary to bring the entire Cabinet, Mr Ahern said it was to show that the Government took its obligations seriously.
"The number [of ministers present] signifies that we want to show we are determined that we get results."
The six new cross-Border implementation bodies are expected to employ 700 staff when they are operating fully. Some 500 of these will be civil servants, North and South, seconded or transferred to the bodies. A further 200 will be specially recruited from outside the two public services. Chief executives for the implementation bodies will be appointed in the new year once recruitment procedures are agreed. Interim chief executives are currently in place.
While the implementation bodies cover generally mundane and limited policy areas, Mr Ahern again indicated the Government's desire to see North-South co-operation expand dramatically. "In my view there is no area of our economic and social life without the potential for enhanced co-operation and common action," he said.
The next biannual meeting of the full North-South Ministerial Council is provisionally scheduled for Dublin next June.
The six implementation bodies set up to implement action agreed by ministers North and South will have offices or sub-offices in Dublin, Belfast, Enniskillen, Cork, Derry, east Donegal, the Carlingford area, Coleraine, Monaghan, Carrick-on-Shannon, Scarriff and Omagh.
Friday's meetings in London are expected to be attended by Mr Ahern, the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, and the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue.