The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has said he hopes to see devolution restored to Northern Ireland sometime next year.
Mr Ahern said the constitutional issue is now settled and the use of violence to achieve a united Ireland is a thing of the past.
He was speaking at an Institute of Directors lunch in Belfast this afternoon.
Separately, the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, told the Dáil that the Republican movement could not make progress in building trust in the North until its leaders begin to tell the truth.
Mr McDowell was responding to a Sinn Féin private members' motion on Irish unity which fell after a Government amendment was voted through.
The minister also said that he believed a united Ireland would come about, but that building it would require a statesmanship that the Republican movement was incapable of.
Mr McDowell said the leadership of the Republican movement was distinguished by what he called a radical inability to tell the truth.
He said that telling the truth about issues like the IRA's involvement in the Northern Bank robbery and the killing of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe was essential if trust was to be built between the communities.
Labour claims over decommissioning
The Labour Party leader, Pat Rabbitte, accused the party of failing to deliver on decommissioning.
Mr Rabbitte said that the party never had any real interest in devolved government and had shed only crocodile tears on the collapse of the Assembly and Executive.
Responding, Sinn Féin TD Arthur Morgan challenged the grass roots of Fianna Fáil to ask themselves whether their party any longer represented their aspirations for a united Ireland, claiming that their new found republicanism rang hollow.
Mr Morgan said Sinn Féin's motion had been put down in an attempt to secure consensus, but that Fianna Fáil in particular was running away from a constructive debate on unity.
