Cross-Border bodies will become an immediate reality after the introduction of the British-Irish Agreement Bill, which is expected to pass all stages in the Dail tonight.

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, described the legislation as providing for a key institutional aspect of the Belfast Agreement when he outlined for the first time details of the bodies, including costs.

It will take some £56 million to operate them when they are up and running, and they will have a total staff of 880. The legislation backs up the four Treaties signed in Dublin Castle yesterday.

Food Safety, Trade and Business Development, Language, Aquaculture and Marine, Special EU Programmes and Waterways Ireland, known as the "implementation bodies", are the focus of the legislation.

The Bill, described as a historic step in the development of relations within "the island" and between Ireland and Britain, was accepted by all sides of the House.

Mr Ahern said the additional cost to the Exchequer was provisional but would roughly be between £5 million and £10 million for this year, rising to £15 million to £20 million by 2001. The Taoiseach was "convinced that the new North-South arrangements make good, practical sense for all of the people on this island".

There were, he added, "many ways in the years ahead that the choice of united Ireland can be made more attractive to a majority of the people in the North. The responsibility is ours."

All six implementation bodies will have chief executives and four of the six will have boards - Food Safety, Trade and Business Development, Language and Aquaculture and Marine. The Food Safety Promotion Board will be "advisory".

The two other bodies, the special EU Programmes body and the Waterways Ireland body will be executive agencies reporting to the North/South ministerial council.

The Language body will have two separate parts, one dealing with the Irish language and the other with Ullans or Ulster Scots cultural issues. The body will have more than double the staff of Bord na Gaeilge, and "should give a significant impetus to Irish language promotion on the island", Mr Ahern said.

The Taoiseach stressed that the Shannon-Erne waterway would immediately come under the authority of Waterways Ireland and from April next year all of the island's currently navigable waterways would be transferred to its authority.

Although the Food Safety Promotion body will have an all-island remit, it will work with the existing North and South agencies which will continue to be responsible for inspection and enforcement.

The Trade and Business Development body will, within three months of setting up, put forward proposals on the development of a North/South equity investment fund programme.