MICHEÁL Martin has said he "didn't detect any change" in the DUP's position on the protocol when he met the party but he stressed the need for the Stormont institutions to be in place to tackle a "very significant cost-of-living crisis".
The taoiseach, who has less than two months in office before stepping aside for Leo Varadkar, was speaking in Belfast after meeting the assembly's five parties.
His visit came just 12 days out from the October 28 deadline for forming an executive. Under new legislation, Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris is compelled to call an election, unless emergency measures are passed by Westminster stalling the assembly poll.
Mr Martin said he believed the result of May's election, which for the first time saw Sinn Féin become the assembly's largest party, should be "honoured and respected" and the institutions restored.
"When we have elections we normally follow with a parliament and a government – that has not happened on this occasion and that is wrong," he said
He said there was still time for the DUP to take its seats at the executive table but despite a "good open exchange" with party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, he was not optimistic of a breakthrough.
"I didn't detect any change in relation to that," he said.
"I did detect, however, a desire for a resolution to all of the issues pertaining to the protocol and that negotiated solution would be the preferred option."
The Fianna Fáil leader said the north needed a government to deal with a "very significant cost-of-living crisis.
He said the talks between the EU and UK that resumed after a hiatus of more than six months, should be allowed to continue and that the assembly should be restored "in the interim".
Sinn Féin northern leader Michele O'Neill said it was unfair that the north had become "collateral damage to the mess that's happening in London".
"I believe that we shouldn't be held ransom because of what's happening with the internal wranglings of the Tory party," she said.
She said an "agreed way forward within the framework of the protocol" was required and that the executive should be formed without further delay.
Stressing the impact of the deepening cost of living crisis, Ms O'Neill said the public needed ministers "around that executive table".
"The DUP need to join the rest of us who want to make politics work, who want to honour the election result from May past and who want to actually help people through what is the most challenging of economic times," she said.
Sir Jeffrey said he felt the Dublin government had recently developed a better understanding of unionist concerns about the protocol.
"I think it is clear that the Irish government share our view now that we're not looking here at some kind of a quick fix, that what we need to do is deal with the protocol issues comprehensively, that we need to get to a place where the foundations for the political institutions are restored and strengthened, and that's where we want to get to," he said.
The DUP leader there could be no "tinkering around the edges" of the post-Brexit trade arrangements and that any agreement needed to "respect the integrity of the UK internal market".
He said it was "difficult" to envisage a breakthrough ahead of next Friday's deadline.
Alliance leader Naomi Long said an election was inevitable in the coming months if the DUP "continue to dig in". However, she questioned the point of another poll.
"We cannot keep running elections in Northern Ireland until the main parties are satisfied with the outcome – that isn't democracy," she said.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said it was "totally irresponsible" for the DUP to block the formation of an executive.
"There's a massive crisis in people's homes right now, there's a crisis, as there always, is in the health service, and our economy is in the toilet, and all the way the DUP are sitting out pretending they're having some influence on the protocol negotiations," he said.
Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie said there was a clear "landing zone" on which the UK and EU could agree a compromise deal.
"We're now hovering above it and all we have to do is land and that takes courage," he said.
