The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, face a revolt by backbench TDs after the summer break as a result of the recent spate of public spending cutbacks.
Deputies are becoming increasingly alarmed at the extent of the cutbacks and the fact that there was no hint of spending curbs during the general election campaign.
One rural TD said that he was getting more and more flak from the public over the cuts, which have been drip-fed from various Government Departments in recent weeks. "I will have things to say at the next parliamentary party meeting, and so will others I have been talking to," he said.
The Taoiseach has already angered many in the parliamentary party by his handling of the appointment of ministers and ministers of state after the general election. Many deputies feel that parts of the country were left out in the cold while other areas are over-represented at the cabinet table.
There was also anger at the fact that two ministers of state, Mr Eoin Ryan and Ms Mary Wallace, were not reappointed.
Government ministers will this week finalise their initial spending plans for 2003. The proposed budgets must be submitted to the Department of Finance by Friday.
The Cabinet will hold its first meeting since the summer break on Thursday and control of public spending is expected to be at the top of the agenda as the Government faces the prospect of a Budget deficit in December.
A spokesman for the Department of the Environment yesterday denied a report that €31 million was to be cut from rural road schemes and water services, two areas identified for cost-savings by the Department.
The spokesman told The Irish Times last night that the specific cuts had yet to be decided by the Department. It was "wrong" to suggest that rural roads would suffer.
It is understood that the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, has been told by the Minister for Finance to come up with a total of €81 million in cuts. The Irish Times revealed last week that all local authorities have been ordered to seek clearance with the Department before signing contracts for housing developments.
Meanwhile, the war of words between the Opposition and the Government over public spending curbs intensified last night, with Fine Gael dismissing as "preposterous" Government claims that "everybody" knew that cutbacks were necessary before the general election.
The deputy leader of Fine Gael, Mr Richard Bruton, said that the Government and in particular the Minister for Finance had led everyone a "merry dance" on the matter of public finances before the election.
"During the election campaign Fine Gael repeatedly expressed concern that poor first-quarter returns indicated that the 2002 Budget was built on faulty foundations. We were consistently reassured that the public purse was fit and healthy and, in a letter dated May 13th, Minister McCreevy categorically denied that any cutbacks were in the pipeline."
However, senior Government sources are denying that they covered up spending cutbacks during the campaign and are pointing to the fact that Fine Gael got its own figures wrong.
Mr Bruton said that Fine Gael had not had a crystal ball. The party had no option but to accept the public finance figures in good faith prior to the election.
"Three months and €300 million in cutbacks later, the Government and Minister McCreevy have sought to air-brush all of these pre-election reassurances out of history," Mr Bruton added. "It is grossly unfair that Fine Gael's Programme for Government is now coming under fire for being wide of the mark when it relied heavily on the Government's own budgetary figures."