Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said that there was now "no credible excuse" for Sinn Féin to refuse to join the policing board in Northern Ireland.
In a speech in north Cork yesterday Mr Ahern urged the party to "step forward and bring closure to the policing issue".
He said the Northern Ireland police oversight commissioner reported "positively on the pace of policing reforms in Northern Ireland" and that the the Patten Commission recommendations were "steadily taking full effect".
The British government had also promised legislation on the devolution of policing and justice in Northern Ireland, he said.
"This and the enormous progress already made on policing will, I hope, provide a context in which Sinn Féin commit to policing," he said.
"The logic of the process points unambiguously in this direction. It is not unreasonable to ask them to put themselves clearly on the side of support for law and order like any other party.
"At this stage in the process an early signal of positive intentions on policing is important and would make a difference."
He also reassured unionist politicians about the Government's intentions regarding Northern Ireland. "No one on this island is threatened or needs to feel under threat," he said.
"I made that very clear in my recent visit to Belfast. I said that the constitutional question had been settled in the Good Friday agreement. There are fair and reasonable arrangements through the agreement to accommodate everybody's sensitivities and concerns. I welcomed the opportunity last week to reiterate this when I met with Dr Paisley and his DUP colleagues."
Mr Ahern made his comments at a ceremony in Kiskeam, Co Cork, to commemorate one of the founders of Fianna Fáil, Seán Moylan, who fought in the War of Independence and the Civil War and died in the late 1950s.
He believed it was essential that we keep alive the memory of pivotal moments in our country's past. He said the return of the official 1916 Easter commemorations next year was part of this.
"My Government want next Easter to be an expression of our pride as a nation in all those who took part in Easter Week and the subsequent War of Independence. We will commemorate inclusively the greatest generation we have ever produced."