Ahern wants close links with Scottish Parliament. Irish Prime Minister plans to develop political, trade and cultural links

Mr Ahern said that the provision in the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement for the establishment of a British-Irish Council - the Council of the Isles - was not ''the Cinderella'' of a complex new set of relations that include the assembly in Belfast and the North-South Irish Ministerial Council.

In particular, he envisages holding regular - perhaps biannual - meetings with the First Minister of the newly elected Parliament in Edinburgh. He also anticipates that similar meetings will be held on a wide range of common policy interests involving Irish government ministers with office holders in the Scottish Parliament.

''My visit to Glasgow gives me the opportunity to meet significant political and business figures with whom I hope we will be working closely to develop East-West relations - strand three - of the Good Friday Agreement,'' he said.

Mr Ahern attended the Celtic-St Johnstone match as a guest of Glasgow businessman and former Celtic director Brian Dempsey.

Immediately after the match, Mr Ahern was driven to the Hilton Hotel, Glasgow, where he had private bilateral meetings with Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar; the leader of the Scottish National Party, Alex Salmond; and the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Thomas Winning.

Later, Mr Ahern was guest of honour at a dinner hosted by Mr Dempsey. Mr Ahern told The Herald that a new era of opportunity now exists for closer links between Scotland and Ireland as a result of the Council of the Isles.

The council will be composed of representatives of the British and Irish governments, and of devolved institutions in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. According to Mr Ahern, this framework will allow scope for building up bilateral relations with Scotland.

''As part of the overall Good Friday arrangement, Ireland's relationship with Scotland will be renewed and returned to where it was many decades ago,'' he said. ''The Irish government and Irish parliamentarians will be dealing in a far more inclusive way with Scottish politicians.

''With Scottish devolution and constitutional changes, this allows for the forging of an entirely new relationship.''

Mr Ahern said that the 1920 Ireland, which paved the way for the partition of the island, resulted in weakening direct Scottish-Irish relations at a political level. ''There was no direct contact at parliamentary or governmental level with the Scots,'' he added. ''We would have met Scottish MPs in the context of Westminster, of course, but not on the basis we can now build up.''

He said that in the negotiations he realised that the East-west dimension was very important to the Ulster Unionist people who want to have the formal connection between the two islands. ''This will mean we will have a different relationship. We in the Irish Republic are a long way behind in our contacts with the Welsh and the Scots. I have met Welsh politicians recently. I now hope we can build up good relations with the Scots and I look forward to this.''

Mr Ahern said his government was anxious to work the Good Friday Agreement to the full. Personally, he looked on all aspects of the agreement to see what was their potential, rather than looking at them in any fearful or restrictive way. We want to make sure that the Assembly at Stormont works. I have been strongly supportive of that and I have done all I could to influence Sinn Fein and others to participate in it.

''We have a North-South ministerial body which is backed by legislation. This is very important for us because it means that the problems of the whole island will be dealt with in that British-Irish context.

''The commonality of views we can have between England, Scotland and Wales will open up more travel, more business connections, and we will understand our historical connections better.''

Insisting that he is a strong Irish republican who ultimately wants to see a united Ireland, Mr Ahern said he was committed to doing so only on the basis of consent. ''It is on the basis of convincing people. We will work on a harmonious way to build up relationships. That is my agenda. I know we can only achieve this by persuasion, by convincing people of the merits of the Irish model.''

Mr Ahern said that the main reason for the phenomenal growth over the past decade of the Irish Republic's economy - the so-called Celtic Tiger of Europe with exports up by 140% - was because of ''partnership'' in coalition governments and with the trade unions, employers and farmers, as well as at community level through the use of European Union funds.

''We see economic and monetary disciplines enshrined in it are effectively good domestic disciplines for Ireland. No country in the modern world has managed to have a strong non-inflationary sustainable growth without controlling both their fiscal and monetary policies.

''Of course our exchange rate policies will be interlinked with the other 11 member states and, in time, no doubt with the 15 member states when the others join. That kind of discipline allows us to have an economy that will continue to grow and that will sustain the various economic ebbs and flows that happen.

''It is up to us to look at the integrated Europe and the enlarged Europe to look for new opportunities. We, confidently in our analysis, see that there can be new opportunities.

''I particularly see opportunities with Scotland, England and Wales. In the recent past we tended to grow apart from Scotland because of the troubles. We can now have very close links through tourism, business contacts, and exchanges of retail goods. There is room for substantial growth.

''It is only consistent for us to work with the Scots. We should do that. We have a huge amount of historical connections. This year is the bicentenary of the Great Irish Rebellion in 1798. It was an event when the Presbyterians in Ulster tried to work with nationalists to build a united Ireland. This got blurred because of 30 years of violence.''