Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has warned against Fianna Fail breaking ranks with a cross party approach to issues in Northern Ireland.
He was commenting on a claim made by Micheál Martin at his party's Bodenstown commemoration.
The Fianna Fáil leader said the Northern Ireland executive had become dysfunctional and ministers had let down the people that elected them by neglecting issues like child poverty.
Mr Gilmore said all parties helped to get the North's institutions up and running.
He was speaking after a meeting with the North's Secretary of State Teresa Villiers
The Tánaiste also said he hoped that the North's Parole Commission would deal expeditiously with the case of Marion Price.
The Republican activist and Old Bailey bomber had been released after the Good Friday Agreement but her license was revoked last year and she is now ill in prison.
Sinn Féin said they were writing to prominent figures in the United States including Hillary Clinton to press her case.
