An official recommendation from food safety authorities on whether stimulant drinks should be regulated is not now expected for a year.
An all-Ireland committee is to study the effects of drinks such as Red Bull, but does not expect to report until December.
The Stimulant Drinks Committee has been established by the Food Safety Promotion Board (FSPB) and is to report to the Minister of State for Health and Children, Dr Tom Moffat. The FSPB is an all-Ireland body set up under the Belfast Agreement.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has asked gardai to investigate the possible link between street violence involving young men and their consumption of stimulant drinks.
Judge Patrick McCartan said in court last month that Red Bull had become almost "a daily excuser", and it made him wonder if it should be on sale.
The Department of Justice said yesterday it intended to wait for the committee report.
A committee member, Dr Thomas Quigley, FSPB chief consultant in food safety, said it would examine important areas such as the potential adverse physiological effects of the drinks' individual and combined ingredients, either on their own or combined with alcohol.
Other areas under examination by the FSPB will be the potential behavioural changes and the marketing of such drinks.
The committee's definition of stimulant drinks is those typically containing caffeine, taurine, vitamins, an energy source and other substances "marketed for the specific purpose of providing real or perceived enhanced physiological or performance effects".
The committee is limiting its study to products which contain more than a specified level of caffeine. Below this level caffeine is used as a flavouring ingredient in soft drinks.
The committee was asked to investigate the effects of stimulant drinks in general and not any particular product.
The FSPB says there are currently upwards of 20 stimulant drinks on the market. These include Red Bull, V, American Bull, Lipovitan B3 and Spiked Silver.
Dr Quigley said the committee's first task would be to conduct a survey of the patterns and consumption levels of stimulant drinks in the country. The survey should be finished by next summer, he said.
The committee's chairman is Prof Sean Strain, of the Northern Ireland Centre for Health and Education, University of Ulster. Eight other health and food science experts are also on the committee.
A recommendation for research into stimulant drinks was made last year by a jury at the inquest into the death of a Limerick university student, Mr Ross Cooney (18), who died in 1999 during a basketball match. He drank up to three cans of Red Bull that day.
The jury recorded a verdict of death resulting from Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, a rare condition affecting about one in 300,000 people. The inquest heard no evidence Red Bull was responsible for Mr Cooney's death.
A spokeswoman for Red Bull told The Irish Times the company had full confidence in its product, having "reviewed and commissioned research into, not only the functional aspect, but the constituents of Red Bull.
"As for the FSPB inquiry, we are fully co-operating with the research team," the spokeswoman said.
The European Scientific Committee on Food examined the safety of high-energy drinks in a 1999 report. Its conclusions said caffeine intake was not a concern for non-pregnant adults, although there had been no research on potential interactions with other products or drugs.
It found insufficient scientific evidence to reach a conclusion about taurine, which is part of the average daily diet, occurring in seafood and meat. The committee found there were insufficient studies to establish a safe upper-level intake for taurine.