THE POTENTIAL of the Hillsborough agreement could be explored to a greater extent than it is currently for the benefit of North and South, Taoiseach Brian Cowen has told the Dáil.

Mr Cowen said the sort of “sensible, practical co-operation” in place in areas such as health “does more to show peace is the way forward than anything else”.

He hoped that “the political will is developing within the Northern Ireland institutions to see that as a way forward for mutual benefit and not part of some surreptitious agenda”.

He was responding during questions on the North to Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who highlighted the area of health for cross-Border co-operation and described it as an opportunity “for both governments to again prove peace works”.

Mr Kenny said that in a small geographical area there could be specialist centres of excellence “North and South, paying real attention to specific areas, whether cardiac, cancer, orthopaedics” or other areas.

He said there was a need for much closer co-operation between North and South on this issue.

Mr Cowen had stated at meetings of the North-South Ministerial Council his belief that “the potential of the agreement can be explored to a greater extent than it is currently”.

A review was under way of North-South issues and there were many areas “which should be positively discussed”.

He added: “All the political rhetoric in the world will not replace that sense of sensible, practical co-operation in a range of areas which is not being exploited to the extent it could be.”

There “is a fair degree of co- operation in regard to public health issues and there is an all-island approach in regard to health research. There is also a greater degree of collaboration between universities in that area and in other research areas.”