Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the British and Irish governments need to redouble their efforts to ensure the return of the Stormont Assembly.
Mr Varadkar was speaking at a meeting of the British-Irish Council in Jersey.
The summit took place without any political representatives from Northern Ireland in attendance because of the collapse of the powersharing institutions.
Mr Varadkar said: "I think above all we need to redouble our efforts to ensure that the Northern Ireland Executive and Northern Ireland Assembly are up and running.
"The next meeting of the British-Irish Council is in Dublin in November.
"It is really important that we have these meetings. The British-Irish Council is one of only two institutions of the Good Friday Agreement that is operating.
"The absence of the first minister and deputy first minister of Northern Ireland is really sorely felt by us. I hope by November this body will be whole."
He said: "At the moment there are a lot of discussions under way between the DUP and the UK government about re-entering the institutions and we are working to do anything we can to help that and work with all five parties in Northern Ireland to bring that about."
Mr Varadkar added: "We haven't really had any discussions or any concrete discussions about what our role is if that can't be done, our focus has to be on making sure that happens."
Also speaking at the summit, British minister Michael Gove said Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is continuing his efforts to attempt to persuade the DUP to allow the restoration of the Stormont Executive.
He said everyone in the council had expressed their regret about the absence of participation of any Northern Ireland politicians while powersharing is suspended.
He said: "The Secretary of State and the Prime Minister have been working to try to persuade all parties in Northern Ireland about the need for some movement in order to ensure we can restore the institutions.
"I know that Chris will continue to work, particularly with colleagues in the DUP, to persuade them that Northern Ireland's interests, their own constituents interests, are better served by restoring devolution."
The discussion at the summit is focusing on the provision of affordable housing across member administrations.
Discussions will focus on cost-of-living challenges, including energy and the response to the war in Ukraine.
