The Northern Ireland Executive cannot be sustained without the North-South Ministerial Council and the other institutions of the Belfast Agreement, the Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamas Mallon, has said.
There was a linkage between the institutions which was specified in the agreement, he added. "One cannot be sustained without the other."
The suspension of the North-South Ministerial Council was only one problem, he said. "It is a serious situation, no matter how you want to describe it, in terms of a number of issues . . . ranging from the exclusion of Sinn Fein, difficulties in the Policing Bill and the ongoing spectre of another Ulster Unionist Party convention in January.
"Due to a failure by all sides to commit themselves wholeheartedly to the agreement in all its aspects, we are again threatened with the stop-go politics that has stalled our process before," Mr Mallon told an American Chamber of Commerce business lunch in Dublin.
Despite the difficulties, the new institutions were working and the first draft programme for government was an important part of that work, he said.
The Policing Bill was handled badly, he added. "If you are asking me if it was handled badly, the answer is yes, from start to finish.
"It should have been based on proper consultation and should have avoided the elements of decision-making which were made both outside the parliamentary process and the consultation process."