The Minister for Foreign Affairs today urged all sides involved in the Northern Ireland peace process to rededicate themselves to breaking the current impasse.
The pro-agreement parties must work together with a sense of "collective responsibility" to break the deadlock, Mr Brian Cowen said.
He said "substantive and extensive progress" had been made in the four outstanding issues of disarmament, policing, demilitarisation and the stability of the political institutions since last month's talks at Weston Park.
He also described IRA disarmament as a "political necessity and a moral obligation" but added: "You cannot expect to resolve this matter in isolation. You will resolve it in the context of full implementation of the agreement.
"We have to recognise the progress that is being made on this issue."
He warned against leaving a political vacuum in the North and the threat of "the reemergence of paramilitarism on the streets".
Mr Cowen told RTE radio that those involved in the peace process needed to rededicate themselves to the partnership approach.
"I get the impression that requirement is absent ... it needs to be restored.
"The concerns that people are expressing cannot take precedence over the democratic requirements of the situation. People north and south have said, `We want the Good Friday Agreement fully implemented'.
"Over the next six weeks we need to see the pro-agreement party representatives working together, reestablishing a sense of collective responsibility to meet the requirements of the situation."
He said he expected details of the implementation of the new policing service to be published this week which will show that the "essentials" of the Patten reforms can be achieved.
Every side needed to take further steps and he added: "Everybody who has influence to bring about that situation must make sure that those steps are taken and then we will have a transformed situation where we will definitely, in my opinion, leave the shackles of the past behind and work together on the basis of mutual trust and tolerance and trust in each others' abilities."
PA