Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has accepted the British government's decision to proceed with the Northern Ireland Assembly elections on March 7th on the understanding that their "single purpose" is to produce a powersharing executive by March 26th.
Speaking after talks with British prime minister Tony Blair at Downing Street last night, the Taoiseach admitted he would have liked "greater clarity and more certainty" about the intentions of the Democratic Unionist Party.
Mr Ahern warned that failure to comply with the deadline set by the St Andrews Agreement for a power-sharing deal would see the Stormont Assembly collapsed and London and Dublin continue, reluctantly, with their alternative Plan B "partnership arrangement".
However, he added: "The British government believes we will not find ourselves in that position, and I have to accept that."
Sinn Féin has repeatedly told Mr Blair that the conditions for the election envisaged at St Andrews have not been met. Last month the Taoiseach said there would be no point in an election without prior resolution of the policing issue by Sinn Féin and a consequent DUP commitment to share power.
Last night, however, Mr Ahern said "the most important thing" was for the DUP "to understand the basis on which we are going ahead".
He insisted that the election was St Andrews "compliant", repeatedly stressing that Mr Blair was "happy and satisfied" by his conversations with party leader the Rev Ian Paisley that "the DUP will live up to its responsibilities".
Following Sunday's Sinn Féin ardfheis, further comments from party president Gerry Adams and the latest Independent Monitoring Commission report, Mr Blair said he believed there was "a tremendous yearning for this process to reach its proper conclusion".
While agreeing with the Taoiseach, Mr Blair was also clearly banking on Dr Paisley's understanding that there would be "no point" in the election unless it was for the purpose of forming a powersharing government on March 26th.
While being careful not to prescribe any new words for the DUP leadership, Mr Blair clearly calculated that the issues and choices would become clearer in the course of an election campaign.
"The people will want to know the basis on which they're being asked to vote," he said.
In their joint statement Mr Ahern and Mr Blair said "if at any point" it became clear "that parties were unwilling to fulfil their commitments . . . to the twin pillars of powersharing on March 26th and support for policing" then "it would be unreasonable to expect the people of Northern Ireland to continue with an election to an Assembly which would not exist".
In Belfast Dr Paisley struck a defiant note about the March 7th election and the subsequent push by Mr Ahern and Mr Blair for powersharing with Sinn Féin.
Speaking at Stormont Castle, the DUP leader said: "The prime minister can say what he likes accompanied by a minister from a foreign country who wants now to decide when we have elections - and what they are about . . . I, as leader of the largest unionist party, will be setting the stage for this election and you'll just have to wait and see what it will be". His comments followed further endorsement of the PSNI by Mr Adams and the publication of the latest Independent Monitoring Commission report.
Introducing the report in Belfast yesterday, former London anti-terrorist squad head John Grieve said: "I never thought I would hear myself say this but the directions from the Provisional IRA leadership to membership have remained clear and consistent and terrorism and violence have been abandoned."
In Dublin, Mr Adams said nationalists and republicans should join the PSNI if they wanted to.