The British Prime Minister has confirmed his government's intention to implement changes in policing and criminal justice as well as some reductions in the security presence in the North despite the hiatus in the political process.
After a meeting in Farmleigh, Dublin, yesterday, both Mr Blair and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, sought to emphasise that reforms would be put in place and political talks would continue despite last week's postponement of Assembly elections until the autumn.
Amid concerns in both governments that last week's political failure could heighten street protest and possibly lead to violence over the summer, both leaders yesterday stressed that the political process would continue and that they would continue to work to implement the Belfast Agreement.
And in a reference to DUP hopes of an election victory followed by a renegotiation of the Belfast Agreement Mr Blair said: "Sometimes there are people who talk about renegotiating the Good Friday agreement. There is going to be no renegotiation of the Good Friday agreement.
"That is the agreement. It is the only agreement upon which there is any possibility of getting the consensus to move Northern Ireland forward and it isn't going to change."
Mr Blair said his government would now work to pass legislation setting up an independent body to monitor the implementation of the agreement. Such a body, seen primarily as designed to ensure the commitments of paramilitaries are adhered to, was part of the Joint Declaration document published last week, which the governments had hoped would form the basis of a political breakthrough.
But despite the failure to reach agreement, Mr Ahern and Mr Blair said they would press on with aspects of the declaration. "We are not having the present impasse as a means for denying people the basic rights which they have," Mr Blair said at a press conference after the Farmleigh meeting.
It was essential, he said, "that we put all the measures in place including the legislation on independent monitoring so that when the institutions are back up and running again we can move forward."
There was no public sign of disagreement between the two on reforms that should now be implemented. Both agreed that some aspects were conditional on the IRA declaring unambiguously that its activities were at an end, but that many others could be implemented now.
"The Joint Declaration contains a number of commitments that we can implement, and should implement", said Mr Blair, "because they are part of the essential rights of the citizen in Northern Ireland"
He listed issues concerning equality and human rights, the Irish language, criminal justice and policing.
He also said he would make some movement on "normalisation" issues, the reduction of the number of military bases and troops in the North. But this was dependent on an IRA commitment to end all activities.
"We would like to go far further on normalisation. We set out in the Joint Declaration what was effectively a two-year programme completely to normalise the situation in Northern Ireland. But to be able to do that is dependent on undertakings and commitments from elsewhere."
Both Mr Ahern and Mr Blair sought to put behind them any differences over the postponement of the election. Mr Ahern said that while the Government had not agreed with the postponement, "now we want to move on and get the issues agreed so that we can have an election."
According to Mr Blair: "Whatever the differences about the decisions we took, we are absolutely united and determined to work together to move this process forward."
They said the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, and the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, would now work to arrange a series of meeting with the Northern parties to seek a political way forward. Mr Ahern described last week's failure as "a temporary setback to our efforts".
He acknowledged that the republican movement had made significant progress towards providing the clarity required, but had not yet got to where the governments wanted them to be.
What was needed was "an unambiguous end to paramilitary activity" which in turn should lead to the long-term stability of the North's political institutions.
He called on those with influence in both communities "to ensure the people of Northern Ireland enjoy a summer free of confrontation. That in itself would be a major contribution to bringing a restored climate of confidence and trust that we can build on into the early autumn." he said.
Mr Blair said the outstanding issue was to get the unambiguous commitment from the IRA, and also to ensure the stability of the institutions. He said the imminence of the election campaign had made it impossible to get that issue "bolted down". But the will to overcome the problem existed.