The Taoiseach has said he has no doubt that talks with the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, in Dublin tomorrow are "a major breakthrough" in the process to restore the Northern executive and Assembly.
He told a press conference at the National Ploughing Championships in Tullow, Co Carlow, yesterday that Dr Paisley's first formal political meeting in Dublin with a Taoiseach was of major significance.
"It is a very important step because at the end of the day the only way we can find a resolution is that all the parties must work together in the process and find a mechanism in the process to work together."
Sinn Féin and the SDLP have also welcomed the Dr Paisley's decision to meet the Taoiseach. However, despite British and Irish efforts to find a compromise, the two nationalist parties and the DUP remain deeply divided over the issue of ministerial accountability.
In statements in Northern Ireland and in speeches on the fringe of the Labour conference in Brighton yesterday, Sinn Féin and the SDLP on one side and the DUP on the other continued to hold fast to their positions on the future powers of Northern ministers.
The Taoiseach, Dr Paisley and his deputy, Mr Peter Robinson,will explore possible methods of resolving the issue of ministerial accountability which is proving the main obstacle to a deal that would see devolution restored.
In Dublin this week, senior British and Irish officials have been busy attempting to devise a formula on accountability that would be in harmony with the Belfast Agreement and which both sides could accept or at least tolerate.
Mr Ahern will also attempt to convince Dr Paisley that, given a cast-iron DUP guarantee that it will fully share power with Sinn Féin, the IRA is prepared to decommission and end activity.
Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, said power-sharing must mean that ministers from different parties exercise power collectively within the Northern executive, "and, critically, individually within their designated portfolios".
However, Mr McGuinness indicated a certain willingness to modify the current accountability arrangements.
"We can, obviously, consider improvements to the effectiveness, efficiency and accountability of the political institutions," he said, "but the core principle of power-sharing will not be diluted. There will be no return to unionist rule."
The SDLP leader, Mr Mark Durkan, said nationalists were right to resist DUP attempts to dilute the Belfast Agreement.
"Just the way they are behaving now is they way they are likely to behave in government: ignoring other people's reasonable positions, demanding to get their way and abusing their powers," he said.
A DUP Assembly member, Mr Jim Wells, speaking at the Ulster Fry fringe event in Brighton yesterday, insisted that in demanding an end to IRA activity and better systems of accountability, the DUP was "demanding no more than what democracy demands".