SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has said he is "open to future discussions" about cross-border co-operation with Fianna Fáil but insists there are no immediate plans for linking up with Micheál Martin's party.
The Foyle MLA said he speaks regularly with the Fianna Fáil leader but he also talks to his Fine Gael and Labour counterparts in the Republic.
"We’re talking to all political parties in the south, whether it’s the taoiseach (Leo Varadkar), Brendan Howlin (Labour leader) or Micheál Martin about the future of the country because with Brexit the conversation has changed," he told The Irish News ahead of the SDLP annual conference in Belfast on Saturday.
"We are now into this conversation about what a new Ireland would look like and how we’d actually get it."
Mr Eastwood said the political flux caused by Brexit had the potential to lead to the "realignment of politics across the island" but it was not on the agenda at the moment.
He said the idea was nothing new and had been talked about by then SDLP leader Mark Durkan in 2007.
"I don't rule anything out but at present we're focused on Brexit and getting the institutions back up and running," he said when asked about linking-up with Fianna Fáil ahead of next year's local government elections.
"It would be me who was doing the negotiation if there was a negotiation going on, and there isn’t. There haven’t been talks or negotiations about parties coming together on some kind of organisational or electoral footing."
For the longer term, however, the SDLP leader was less categorical.
"I am not ruling out in the longer term organisational change across the island of island - it would be foolish to so - but it’s further down the line and not something we’ve been actively engaged in," he said.
Mr Eastwood is keen to talk up the party's positives, even though he acknowledges the setback of losing all three Westminster seats in last May's "polarised" snap election.
He said "we were the fourth largest party now we’re the third; we got 100,000 votes; we went up proportionately in terms of seat numbers at the assembly election".
A matter of weeks after this weekend's annual conference, members will gather again behind closed doors on May 19 to discuss the emotive issue of abortion.
Several motions on abortion and conscience votes were due to included on Saturday's conference agenda, but party officers felt the hour allocated for discussion was inadequate.
The Foyle MLA says the party's discussions are part of a "very big conversation going on across Ireland".
He said he could not pre-empt the outcome of the May conference, which takes place just days before the Republic votes on repealing the eighth amendment of the constitution, but he believes the SDLP will maintain its pro-life stance.
The party leader also declined to say whether he would advocate a free vote on terminations policy.
"I have a view on that but I think the best thing is to have that discussion internally first," he said.
"I don’t want to be trying to lead people through the media."
Mr Eastwood said he and deputy leader Nichola Mallon held pro-life views that reflected party policy.
"We are both in a party that has a pretty strong view on abortion and I don’t think any of us has said anything to the contrary to that and we support the party policy," he said.
"What I do recognise is that people on different aspects of this discussion are in slightly different places, across the party, across the community and within their own minds."
Asked whether he would vote to repeal the eighth amendment if the opportunity arose, Mr Eastwood said he hadn't followed the debate "in the detail I would need to" and declined to say how he would vote.
However, in relation to the Stormont institutions he repeated his call for the two governments to deal with the Irish language, legacy and the petition of concern.
He also warned against a fresh round of talks that focused again on the DUP and Sinn Féin.
"Pretending that another talks process that’s exactly the same as the last one would make any difference is a mistake and playing people for fools," he said.
"When our politics fail the two governments have to step in and impose a deal."
He added that the collapse of talks in February had been disappointing.
"Taken from a purely nationalist or non-DUP perspective, we’ve all been shut out of power and the DUP have been put in the most powerful place ever," he said.
"Is that good for nationalism? I think people can judge for themselves."
