The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen has called on the British Government to allow elections to the powersharing Assembly to take place in the autumn.
Mr Cowen, who was on a visit to the North, said the Government had strongly opposed the decision by the UK Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, to suspend the election on May 29th.
He warned of a political vacuum developing if elections did not go ahead.
"Regardless of any other considerations there must be elections here in the autumn. It has fed a very negative dynamic into the situation that there weren't," he said.
"To provide a change of direction in that respect would greatly facilitate the positive momentum we need to bring to this situation.
"I am very worried about the sort of political vacuum that could be created where we not to proceed quickly," he added.
Mr Cowen said the Government would continue to press London to make sure there were no further suspensions.
"The Irish Government will continue in dialogue and ask for the objective situation to be assessed here and I think increasingly everyone recognises that a sustainable political process is predicated on elections being held in the way in which they were envisaged."
During a visit to the Falls Road he met community activists who expressed anger at the decision to postpone last month's poll.
Mr Cowen said that while he understood their anger, they recognised it was not the Government's decision.
"They were genuine, they were frank and they were candid and they were also acknowledging that the Government has done everything we can do in the situation in respect of that issue."
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, who met Mr Cowen in west Belfast, said there was "a lot of work to be done to ensure that the summer months are calm, particularly for people in interface areas who have had to endure totally unacceptable conditions over recent summers."