The Taoiseach has acknowledged that sensitive issues for Ireland such as tax harmonisation may be put back on the table for debate at the new Convention on the future of Europe.
Speaking to reporters at the end of the Laeken Summit meeting at the weekend, Mr Ahern said he hoped this would not happen, "but I think in the debate you are going to get all kinds of issues and quite frankly it's not going to be very possible or credible to stop people raising issues. But that applies both ways."
He and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, stressed that the role of the Convention - which will be producing more prescriptive recommendations than Ireland would like - is subsidiary to that of the Inter-Governmental Conference, to begin when the Convention concludes its work. Ireland will have three of up to 100 members of the Convention, while at the IGC it is one of 15 member states with a veto on issues important to it.
Asked if the Convention agenda and the make up of those driving it was more integrationist than Ireland would like he said it was necessary to have a fundamental look at the EU's structures as "the system as we know it has to change substantially".
However, he signalled he would resist the opening of taboo subjects for the Government such as ending national vetoes on taxation policy. "The presidency today made the point that they did not want to get into issues that were finalised at Nice", he said.
In his mind the issue of introducing more Qualified Majority Voting and abolishing national vetoes on some issues "has been signed off for another 20 years or so - I said 20 years because that covers the full of my political lifetime . . . Nobody in this round of discussions has made the point that any of the issues signed off on should come back into play."
The Taoiseach also said he expected all member states, including Ireland, to be in a position to ratify the Nice Treaty before the end of this year, paving the way for the entry of up to 10 new members the following year. However, he did not give an unequivocal commitment to as referendum, saying that the process of debate through the Forum on Europe had to continue first.
He said he had passed onto his colleagues a message from the chairman of the Forum on Europe, Senator Maurice Hayes, that Europe's political leaders need to consult the people on the issues that concern them.
"Nobody is talking about a superstate. The nation state will remain our core political unit now and into the future but there are things which can most effectively be done at European level. What Europe needs to do more than anything is demonstrate to the people that the European Union is their union and is, with national governments, delivering to them."
He signalled the Government's intention to ensure the Government parties and Opposition select one representative each to fill the two positions on the Convention given to the Oireachtas. The Opposition parties have argued that because each government can nominate the third national member, both Oireachtas members should be chosen by the Opposition.
"I'd probably say that myself if I was in Opposition too but it's probably not very sustainable, is it" he said. "The Government is the Government while in the Oireachtas my party has over 100 representatives so you could hardly have a position where a party with 20 or 30 would have one nomination and a party with over 100 would have none."