Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has called on the Government to press for the restoration of political institutions in the North.
Speaking in Dublin ahead of a special meeting of the party's leadership, Mr Adams said it was time to end the deadlock and for the DUP to join the party in government at Stormont.
Mr Adams described the current impasse as farcical and warned that the political institutions and the Belfast Agreement faced a decisive year ahead.
The Sinn Féin leader said the IRA's decision to end its armed struggle had created the conditions to move the peace process forward and end British direct rule in the province.
Mr Adams said: "Sinn Féin is ready for progress and ready for the challenge of serving in government with the DUP.
The West Belfast MP said it was unacceptable that the current assembly, which was elected in November 2003, had never met.
Mr Adams identified talks next month as an opportunity to build a platform for progress. He said: "It is time to end the obscenity of British Direct Rule.
"All other issues aside, the cost of British Ministers running the north is too high in terms of jobs lost, increasing poverty, rising energy costs, incompetence and inefficiency.
"Consequently, the Irish government needs to ensure that the talks in February are about the speedy restoration of the political institutions and the implementation of the outstanding aspects of the Good Friday Agreement."