North/SouthCloser collaboration between the authorities in the Republic and Northern Ireland could help address infrastructure deficits on both sides of the Border, according to the ESRI.

"In considering the priorities for the next NDP, it is important to consider what infrastructural investment in Northern Ireland would support development south of the Border and how the current investment strategy for Northern Ireland reflects these needs. The converse of this is consideration of what investment under the NDP could support economic and social development north of the Border."

Plans for the Borders/Midlands/West region of the Republic should be integrated with the plans for the development of Derry. While an all-island electricity market would benefit both economies, it would require investment in transmission to double the existing link between the North and the Republic.

"The obstacle to this investment is not finance," the ESRI report warned. "Rather, it is the possibility of significant planning delays in one or other, or both jurisdictions."

The Republic's planning system would have to be changed to ensure the delays that slowed investment in transmission in the past do not re-occur, it said.

The possibility of an integrated plan for the provision of key health service facilities in the Border regions of the Republic and the North should be examined, the ESRI said. A planned new hospital in Enniskillen could also serve Monaghan, Cavan, Leitrim, Sligo and Donegal.

But it warned that the administrative complexity of implementing a more integrated health service on the island could prove to be a major obstacle.

In third-level education, there would be opportunities for the Republic's colleges to provide greater services in the North.