The Stormont Assembly could operate for a "few months" while issues surrounding the restoration of the power-sharing executive were addressed, the Taoiseach has said.
Speaking on BBC television yesterday, Mr Ahern said that while the policy of both the British and Irish governments was full restoration of all the institutions of the Belfast Agreement, the impasse over the executive should not stop the assembly from doing its work.
A reconvened assembly falls short of Sinn Féin and SDLP demands for an end to suspension of the institutions, but it is in tune with DUP suggestions that interim measures be put in place while unionist confidence in power-sharing between the Rev Ian Paisley's party and republicans is addressed.
Mr Ahern told the BBC: "Well, obviously, if we don't get agreement on the executive, you cannot have an executive. But that should not stop the assembly operating for a period of time while there is work for it to do, and that could take a few months. At the end of the day, we want to get to a position where we will have the assembly operating fully and functioning as it was designed in the Good Friday agreement, and we want to get the executive doing the same."
The Taoiseach warned that if the two governments could not get the institutions functioning this year as per the Belfast Agreement, then they would have to think again. "But that would be a huge tragedy and I do not want to find myself in that position."
The Taoiseach said he believed that all the obstacles to power-sharing had been removed and it was just a matter of working out how to restore it.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern told the BBC in an earlier interview that London and Dublin would adopt an "inter-governmental approach" in the event of failure to agree on a restored executive.
Despite the similarity between the Taoiseach's comments and aspects of DUP policy, that party's MEP, Jim Allister, accused the Taoiseach and Minister for Foreign Affairs of having "pontificated on the future internal governance of part of the United Kingdom".
He called on Northern Secretary Peter Hain to remind "these foreign meddlers" that the governance of Northern Ireland was solely the concern of the British government and the local parties.
Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson said that any move towards a model of joint authority would be completely unrealistic. "It is time Dublin stopped being the bully-boy and worked with the rest of us," he said.
Danny Kennedy, the Ulster Unionist deputy leader, warned that the executive, if restored, would have to be "meaningful and not simply a school debating society".
Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness accused the DUP of being out on a limb. He said: "It is quite clear from all the contributions to this debate that the DUP are now very isolated on many matters. You also have the American president saying 'get on with it and get the institutions up' and you have the British prime minister agreeing with the Taoiseach."
Mr McGuinness added: "In our discussions with the two governments we have made it crystal-clear that progress had to be made in the immediate period. This means the lifting of suspension and a determined effort to establish a fully-functioning executive. It also means the end of the failed approach of pandering to the DUP."
The SDLP welcomed what it said were indications that the two governments were ready to go for "earlier and more substantive developments" than a shadow assembly, which had been talked about some weeks ago.
"We have been saying for many months that the two governments needed to make clear that we are all on a countdown to the restoration of the institutions," said party leader Mark Durkan. "We have repeatedly stressed that the governments needed to stop sending the signal that the DUP are in control of the political calendar."
The governments are due to publish their proposals in three weeks' time.