There are inherent dangers in the South's weariness with Northern Ireland,writes Andy Pollak
As the review of the Belfast Agreement begins, the weariness in Dublin with the North is palpable. The historian Prof Ronan Fanning spoke for the majority of politically conscious southerners when he talked at a recent conference of the "deep-seated disenchantment and boredom among outsiders" with Northern Ireland.
As the South starts tentatively to emerge from economic downturn and the Government labours over the onerous task of formulating an agreed EU constitution, the North is as low on the political agenda as it has been since the start of the peace process in the early 1990s.
There is real danger in this southern disillusionment. One of the cornerstones of the Belfast Agreement - and one of its surprise success stories - has been that agreement's "Strand Two": the institutionalisation and expansion of North-South co-operation.
It would be unwise for southern boredom to lead political leaders to put such practical and unthreatening co-operation on the "back burner".
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, only too conscious of this, exhorted his Cabinet in December to continue giving a high priority to this co-operation.
There is a significant group of people who believe this is an important part of the way forward.
The DUP electoral victory hides the fact that a growing number of Northern Protestants, particularly those involved in business, realise that doing more things on an "island of Ireland" basis makes good sense in this increasingly inter-connected, globalising world.
It is no coincidence that six of the seven writers contributing articles in favour of North-South co-operation to the Centre for Cross Border Studies' 2004 yearbook are from a Protestant background.
It is no coincidence that the pragmatic DUP deputy leader, Peter Robinson, has said that as long as cross-Border co-operation is for "practical purposes" and not for advancing the nationalist agenda, then he is fully in favour of it.
There are two main reasons why the Government and people of the Republic must respectively develop and support cross-Border co-operation. The first is the obvious one: it is an essential part of the peace process.
The mutual antagonism and contempt that characterised North-South relations for most of the 20th century contributed to the decline into communal strife in the North. For 75 years two parts of an island which, up to then, had been one political, administrative and economic unit turned their backs on each other. With the exception of a small number of business, church and sports people, significant contact between the peoples of the two jurisdictions became almost non-existent.
The opening up of relations, which has started to take place seriously over the past six years, is part of the slow emergence of a new mutual understanding and respect on the island.
It is not in the South's economic or political interest to have a smouldering, bitterly divided, deeply suspicious and occasionally still violent province as its immediate neighbour. It is bad for investment and jobs. It is bad for law and order and social harmony. It is bad for the health of the Republic's body politic.
All this is common sense. However, just as sensible is the argument from business people that not only is it in Northern Ireland's interest to open up economically to and learn from the still vibrant economy of its nearest neighbour, but that such co-operation is also in the Republic's interest. The doubling of North-South trade in the seven years up to 2000 is the clearest evidence of this.
One area where all-island co-operation is working for both jurisdictions is tourism, where in 2003 the new North-South body, Tourism Ireland Ltd, oversaw a 4.5 per cent increase in overseas tourist numbers to the island at a time when the international tourism market was largely depressed.
Another is higher education. A new nine-university umbrella body, Universities Ireland, and a new body linking the colleges of education and other teacher education providers, SCoTENS (the Standing Conference on Teacher Education North and South) emerged in 2003, both administered by the Centre for Cross Border Studies. Universities Ireland's first research project is on the harmonisation of university regulations across the Border to facilitate greater student flows.
A recent proposal from the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School for a joint doctorate in business studies with the School of Management and Economics at Queen's University Belfast spoke of the importance of the two parts of the island "orchestrating their resources"to put universities, North and South, in the forefront of the drive to turn Ireland into the "Boston of Europe" by attracting the "very top brains in the world".
Entrepreneurs already know the value of links with the North's universities: Queen's University is a world leader in oncology and the miniaturisation of electronics; the University of Ulster has an international reputation in biomedical sciences and art and design.
It is also recognised that southern officials can learn from the higher standards in some key areas of the Northern public sector.The health service is an obvious example.
The imbalance in the quality of the two services is clear in the Border region, where anecdotal evidence indicates that hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of southerners cross the Border every week to avail of cheaper and more efficient GP, dental and hospital services.
One GP in a Tyrone Border village said recently that if everyone on his books came from the village itself, it would be transformed into a very large town indeed.
Education is another area where the South has a large amount to learn from the North, notably from the superb services provided by its decentralised Education and Library Boards.
Despite the tendency of so many southerners to denigrate and belittle Northern Ireland, and the daunting obstacles facing the peace process elsewhere, the new house of practical North-South co-operation is being built.
Over 700 civil servants in both jurisdictions are working on its construction, plus hundreds more people from non-governmental organisations such as Co-operation Ireland and the Centre for Cross Border Studies, and projects funded by the EU peace programmes.
It is going to impact on the lives of ordinary southerners in a growing way in the coming decades, whether they realise it or not.
Andy Pollak is director of the Centre for Cross Border Studies in Armagh