Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy today looked forward to the prospect of staging early elections for a new Assembly but rejected suggestions of differences over the issue with the Irish Government.
His comments follow a 90-minute meeting in Dublin with the Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Cowen. Earlier the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, told the Dáil it would be "a desperate mistake" not to hold the elections in the autumn.
But Mr Murphy today hinted strongly the elections would go ahead but gave no absolute assurances: "At the same time, everything we have done in Belfast - for example in terms of paying our MLAs 50 per cent salaries and keeping up political activity in Northern Ireland - all those things are within a framework of six months.
"Of course it is important to work towards those elections, but at the same time it is equally important to try to ensure that we have an executive formed. There are no divisions on this."
Both Mr Murphy and Mr Cowen said they had been "encouraged" by last Monday's Ulster Unionist Party council vote in favour of embattled leader and former Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble.
Earlier, Mr Ahern told the Dáil he would be discussing Northern Ireland with Prime Minister Tony Blair when the two leaders attend a European summit in Greece this weekend.
"Not to have elections in the first place, a month ago, was a bad mistake. Not to have them in the autumn would be a desperate mistake.
"I have given my reasons for that. There is a vacuum and I just don't think the political momentum can be kept going without effectively an assembly, an executive of full-time politicians at their place of work," he said.
PA