The Fianna Fáil parliamentary party is to have a special meeting on the Nice Treaty and the campaign for a Yes vote in Killarney, Co Kerry, on September 17th and 18th.
The entire two days will be devoted to the subject and guest speakers are being invited.
A decision on a date for the referendum itself is to be made "in a week or two", senior Fianna Fáil sources said. They said the Taoiseach was waiting until the Yes campaign was up and running.
Mr Ahern was reported to be very determined to win the referendum and he would be putting strong pressure on TDs and senators to play an active part.
The Killarney meeting is being co-ordinated by the Chief Whip, Ms Mary Hanafin, and the chairman of the parliamentary party, Mr Séamus Kirk.
Last night the Taoiseach made the latest in a series of speeches on European issues at the opening of a new centre for the performing arts in Dublin's Liberty Hall, where he stressed the need to "commit fully and wholeheartedly" to the European Union.
The EU was the "key defence mechanism" for the defence of workers' rights, he said. But he warned: "At the end of the day, the EU, like any union, is only as good as the support it gets from its members."
The European project had brought increasing cultural diversity "and is now, with enlargement as envisaged in the Nice Treaty, on the brink of the biggest cultural infusion in its history.
"I believe that, in an enlarged EU, we will find many allies in the search to preserve and grow our different - but, at the same time, interlinked - cultures."
There could be no doubt that the EU had made a difference and would continue to make a difference in the social policy area, bringing real and very positive benefits to people in their daily lives.
He said that the new centre for the arts would re-establish Liberty Hall as "a landmark on the cultural map of our capital city" as well as the country as a whole. "It also sends out a very clear message that culture is for all of us, not just for the intellectual elite."
The SIPTU president, Mr Des Geraghty, said that the Liberty Hall Centre would "focus on culture not as a commodity to be bought and sold, but as a public good, accessible to as many people as possible".
Along with many leading trade unionists, the guests included the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr Dermot Lacey of the Labour Party, and Ms Shivaun O'Casey, daughter of the playwright Seán O'Casey, who was involved in the early history of Liberty Hall. Next Monday sees the opening of a musical based on the life of "Big Jim" Larkin.
Addressing the Dublin Chamber of Commerce yesterday, the Minister of State for European Affairs, Mr Dick Roche, said that the beginning of the Dáil debate on Nice next week would mark the start of a period of intense focus and activity.
"We will leave no stone unturned when it comes to getting our message out," Mr Roche said. "We will campaign hard. We will be working with might and main to ensure that the people have available to them all of the information they need to reach an informed judgment on the issues involved."
The former Taoiseach, Mr John Bruton, told a conference in Dublin Castle that the next phase of European construction, built on the foundation of Nice, was "the product of a dream" which was nothing less than the reunification of Europe after the Cold War.
"Reunification on this island has after all been a dream of many here. So why not reunification on a larger scale, too? Why not the reunification of Europe?" Mr Bruton asked.