Mr Gerry Adams has called on all supporters of the Belfast Agreement to campaign to force the British government to reinstate the political institutions in the North.
The Sinn Fein President yesterday urged civic society, the clergy and ordinary people who had voted for the agreement on both sides of the Border to "win back the potential for change that is required to underpin the search for a lasting peace".
He said he was especially calling on nationalists and republicans to return to the streets to build "the political strength needed to counterbalance the unionist veto".
It is understood that Sinn Fein plans to organise a series of rallies across the North. Party supporters will gather for a demonstration today in Castle Street in Belfast city centre.
"The priority at this critical point in the peace process must be to get the institutions back in place as soon as possible," he said. Other aspects of the Belfast Agreement, including demilitarisation, the equality agenda and justice issues, also had to be implemented.
"It is crucial that at this pivotal point in the peace process, people take ownership of the process and again seek to influence a British government which has ignored the democratically expressed wishes of the people of both parts of the island.
"I feel very strongly that the British government's support of unionism has closed down one phase of this process and that a new phase is now opening up. How this is managed will be crucial to the success of our endeavours."
Responding to Mr Adams's call for street protests, the SDLP Assembly member, Mr Mark Durkan, said: "The acute difficulties which we face need to be addressed urgently at a concerted political level. Trying to mobilise people on to the streets, particularly in any sort of partisan way would probably only delay and detract from this necessity."
The Ulster Unionist assembly member, Mr Michael McGimpsey, yesterday criticised Sinn Fein for threatening to stop acting as a mediator with the Provisional IRA on decommissioning.
"If Gerry Adams withdraws from negotiations on decommissioning the republican movement is in total breach of the Belfast Agreement and as such all aspects to do with prisoner releases and other reforms would have to be reviewed."
The Progressive Unionist Party assembly member, Mr David Ervine, suggested that Mr Adams was "attention seeking". He said: "Obviously he is quite frustrated. He sees David Trimble receiving attention as if he is an endangered species. Maybe Mr Adams feels it would be more advantageous if he appeared to be an endangered species."
The Taoiseach struck an optimistic tone on the future of the peace process yesterday, saying he believed it was possible in the weeks ahead to return to the position the process was in just before the institutions were suspended, adds Elaine Keogh.
Admitting it was a difficult time in the process, he said the parties must focus on the areas that brought the institutions into suspension in order "to try and find a means of getting the confidence of all communities on all sides to re-establish them.
"To do that we have to find some progress on the decommissioning issue and the demilitarisation issue and I think in the context of doing that, the best way of us doing it is direct dialogue between the parties."