The Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has warned the North's political parties that "the time has come" to decide whether they want to work together in a devolved government in the coming months.
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern
He said that dragging negotiations on the issue into 2007 would create separate difficulties for both governments.
"There is no Plan B. We don't countenance failure in this because we were very close to it back in December 2004," Mr Ahern said in an interview today with RTÉ.
Mr Ahern said both governments were "absolutely adamant" that politicians in the North would "have to decide whether they want to work in partnership in a devolved government."
The Louth TD said an assembly and executive needed to be set up to deal with the bread-and-butter issues that affects every person in the North.
"It makes no economic sense that a small island of 5.5 million people be treated as two separate entities in a globalised economy, because competitiveness is the key issue.
"In the interests of people in Northern Ireland, it is absolutely vital that [political parties] sit down to decide their own destiny," he told RTE Radio.
"Basically politicians have to work with the tools that are available to them, and with the Good Friday Agreement the people said that there should be direct rule in Northern Ireland where the Northern Ireland politicians should be the authors of their own destiny, not politicians coming across for a couple of days from the UK," he added.