The suspension of the Northern Ireland Executive would be "the greatest disaster to befall Ireland in the last 100 years", the Northern Ireland Minister of Education, Mr Martin McGuinness, said yesterday.
He was speaking in Dublin, where he met the Minister for Education and Science, Dr Woods, yesterday morning.
He said the Belfast Agreement was working, and his meeting with Dr Woods was a "manifestation" of that. He expressed the hope that despite the present difficulties he could pursue the work he had started in the Northern Ireland Department of Education.
A small minority of "rejectionist unionists" were attempting to collapse the process, he said. Mr McGuinness was speaking at the first meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council for Education.
However, Mr Dermot Nesbitt MLA, representing the First and Deputy First Ministers, said all parties must work the agreement, "not just by words but by deeds".
"I sat here in Dublin Castle two years ago talking about who would sit in the talks process, so we have come a long way in that time. But what is needed to deliver this agreement is not words, but actual deeds."
Mr McGuinness and Dr Woods announced they would set up a body to promote "teacher mobility" between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Among the issues to be examined are pension entitlements being transferred between both jurisdictions and the necessity to take an examination in Irish to teach in the Republic. Mr McGuinness said everyone's focus should be on "our children".
After Dr Woods and Mr McGuinness had taken questions, the musicians of the Cross-Border Quartet struck up a Scott Joplin number.
The quartet was present to launch an initiative aimed at bringing together young people from throughout Ireland, called "Doors - Celebrating Lifelong Learning".
This initiative involves four gala performances in which 1,000 young performers will participate.
The two Ministers were also announcing future areas of co-operation in the education sector, but the media wanted to ask questions about the fate of the Northern Ireland Executive.
When Mr McGuinness told the reporters he would "rather take questions about education" there was little response. One journalist got around Mr McGuinness's stipulation by asking what would happen to the education of Northern children if the Executive was suspended.