Tánaiste Micheál Martin has told the President of the Palestinian Authority that Ireland hoped to push for greater consensus in the European Union before formally recognising Palestinian statehood.
At a meeting in the occupied West Bank, the Tánaiste told Mahmoud Abbas that Ireland ultimately supported formal recognition, but that such a move would have greater impetus if multiple EU member states moved together on the issue.
"I think Ireland doing it on its own may not inject impetus. That's the point," Mr Martin said after the meeting at the Muqata'a presidential compound in Ramallah.
"I think that's why we do believe in wider discussions with other European Union member states to develop a critical mass of member states that will take such action."
Mr Martin said Ireland was interested in the establishment of a structured dialogue between the EU and the Palestinian Authority.
But he also warned Mr Abbas that differing views across the EU posed challenges.
In particular, the Tánaiste said that reforms were needed in Palestine, noting that legislative elections have not been held there since 2006.
The two leaders also discussed "the absence of serious momentum" in peace talks with Israel amid escalating violence in the region, pointing to the expansion of Jewish settlements.
The Tánaiste has met the 87-year-old Mr Abbas numerous times in the past two decades, including in Dublin almost a year ago, where Mr Abbas praised Ireland's support of Palestine.
On the compound, the Tánaiste also laid a wreath on the tomb of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Mr Arafat was Mr Abbas' immediate predecessor as president of the Palestinian Authority, and is considered a founding father of Palestinian nationalism.
Earlier, at the Beitunia Secondary Vocational School for Girls in Ramallah, Acting Minister for Education of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Mosa Abu Mouis, thanked Mr Martin for Irish educational support.
"You are supporting Palestinian education and building capacity, building schools like this, and in particular the TVET," he said, referring to a technical and vocational educational training programme.
At the school, Mr Martin visited several classrooms, and sat in on knitting, coding and hairdressing lessons.
The Tánaiste said the visit to the school reflected the Government's "engagement and interest" in education, and particularly the education of young women.
"Ireland has been part of its development cooperation programme with Palestine [for] over 22 years and education has been at the centre of that," he said.
"We will continue such support well into the future because the story of modern Ireland is a story of education."
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Alongside Germany, Finland and Norway, Ireland has supported the work of the Palestinian Ministry of Education in recent years, in turn helping to build over 100 schools.
The meeting follows yesterday's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
After that meeting, Mr Martin said that he did not see any signs of an immediate change in direction in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
In recent months, he had said that escalating violence in the region had made the two-state solution "increasingly unviable".
Since Mr Netanyahu returned last December as prime minister at the helm of an ultra-nationalist government, the region has experienced its bloodiest period in decades.
Israel's military has conducted a number of raids in the West Bank. The expansion of Jewish settlements there is also considered by most countries to be a breach of international law.
