Good Friday Agreement opens the way for a new era of cross-border co-operation.

The Good Friday Agreement paves the way for a new beginning for all the people of this island.

The agreement provides the framework for the development of a partnership society in Northern Ireland, a society in which both traditions are afforded equal respect and to which both can have equal allegiance.

The agreement also sets out the framework for the development of a new relationship between both parts of this island. Strand Two of the Good Friday accord provides for the establishment of a North-South Ministerial Council, with implementation bodies working on an all-island, cross border basis.

This is the `Irish dimension' which Northern Nationalists have, for more than twenty years, regarded as a pre-requisite for any settlement of the Northern Ireland question.

This is the first joint venture of the Labour Relations Commission and the Labour Relations Agency since the Good Friday Agreement.

The companies on both sides of the border who are the clients of these industrial relations bodies share some common problems and there is much that is similar in the LRA and the LRC approach to these problems. We can, indeed we must, build on joint initiatives like todays to ensure that industrial relations processes and institutions are capable of meeting the scale and rhythm and complexity of change that companies face on both sides of the border.

The prospects for cross-border co-operation in the economic area are particularly exciting. The border areas of both Northern Ireland and the Republic have suffered in economic terms from partition. Geographical proximity could not compensate for political distance and for several decades there was little or no effort at cross-border co-operation in the economic field.

The lack of political appetite for north-south co-operation is well illustrated by what happened to the railways. At the time of partition there were twelve different cross-border rail links in operation. Today, there is just one.

The lack of political interest in developing better transport links was evident in other ways also. People in the south wondered why the Stormont government pushed its new M-1 motorway from Belfast westwards towards Dungannon rather than southwards towards the border and the direct route to Dublin.

Equally, people in the north wondered why the Dublin government put so little investment into developing the Dublin-Belfast road route if they were so keen on a united Ireland.

The telecommunications systems in both parts of the island were developed as entirely separate entities. Today, a caller in Dundalk dials twelve digits to ring Sydney, twelve thousand miles away. But he has to dial thirteen digits to ring Newry, just twelve miles away.

Thirty years of terrorism did nothing to help the cause of economic co-operation. If anything, it drove the two parts of the island even further apart. People from the south were afraid to holiday in the north; people of the majority tradition in the north were reluctant to visit the south because many of them regarded it as a hostile state.

Indeed, there are many lessons to be learned from the approach of ICTU which has some half a million workers in the Republic and close to a quarter of a million in Northern Ireland. I would like to compliment the Northern Ireland Committee of Congress on their important contribution in promoting peace and economic reconstruction.

This is reflected in their document Investing in Peace. The hallmark of the Congress approach throughout all the troubled years was to combine a tolerance of members points of view on the constitutional issue with intolerance of violence and antisectariarism. It epitomises how best we can overcome the long legacy of mistrust and misunderstanding that we now have to address.

The Good Friday Agreement identifies a range of areas in which co-operation and implementation for mutual benefit may take place. These include a number of important economic headings, such as agriculture, transport and tourism.

In agriculture, many would argue that, in terms of EU negotiations, farmers in Northern Ireland share a greater common interest with their colleagues in the Republic than with their counterparts across the water.

In tourism, it makes obvious sense to promote this small island on the edge of Europe as a single destination. Indeed, attractions such as the Shannon-Erne waterway can only be marketed on an all-island basis.

In transport, there is a clear need for better co-operation between planners on both sides of the border so that the major road links between north and south can be upgraded as speedily and as cost-effectively as possible.

The main route between Dublin and Belfast is probably the worst road link in Europe between two neighbouring cities of this size and is in urgent need of upgrading, particularly on the southern side of the border.

Cross-border co-operation is a game in which both sides can be winners. For companies in the south, Northern Ireland is their nearest export market and the most easily accessible in transport terms. Increased sales to Northern Ireland will be profitable sales.

For companies in the north, the realisation must now surely be there that they are sitting next door to the fastest-growing economy in the developed world, an economy with a healthy appetite for the kind of high-quality consumer goods that Northern Ireland manufacturers can offer.

Cross-border co-operation and cross-border trade can pave the way, in both parts of this island, for increased output, increased employment and increased prosperity.

The benefits for Northern Ireland could be very significant. It is an area with great economic potential. It has a well educated and adaptable workforce with a great work ethic. It has very good infrastructure, with excellent air and sea links to Great Britain. It has many attractions for foreign investors wishing to establish a manufacturing base in the European Union.

But Northern Ireland has been unable to achieve its full economic potential because of the problems of the last thirty years and an appallingly negative international image which deterred tourists and investors alike. Cross-border co-operation provides an entirely new and more favourable context in which Northern Ireland can pursue economic prosperity.

We in Ireland have much to learn from the momentous changes that have taken place in Europe since the Second World War. Twice in a generation Germany waged violent war against France and Britain. Yet, today, all three countries are firmly bound together in the political partnership that is the European Union.

The Europeans have escaped their history; we Irish must not be haunted by ours. The founding fathers of the EEC built economic bridges to cross political divides. Here in Ireland we can do the same. The more we talk to each other and trade with each other the less we will fear each other and hate each other.

The Good Friday Agreement created the structures for a new political beginning in Ireland, both north and south. Let us use those structures to build a better future for all of the people who live on this island.