The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said he intends to implement a Cabinet re-shuffle in June of next year.
In an interview in today's Sunday Business Post newspaper, Mr Ahern he would be watching his ministers intently over the next six months to decide on who kept which portfolio.
The Taoiseach said he was pessimistic about the chances of breaking the deadlock on a new European Union constitution during Ireland's six-month EU presidency.
A row over voting rights led to the collapse of a summit in Brussels two weeks ago, scuppering efforts to conclude a constitutional treaty aimed at preparing the 15-member bloc for the admission of 10 new nations in May 2004.
"I feel that it might not be possible to conclude it next year, it could go into 2005," Mr Ahern said.
"There certainly was no mood to settle in Brussels and no mood that we should settle in the short term."
The mid-December Brussels talks foundered on an intractable dispute over member states' voting rights that pitted France and Germany against Spain and Poland, with the latter two resisting changes that would reduce their influence.
Mr Ahern said he would be consulting other members in the coming weeks with a view to reporting to an EU summit in March.
He added the picture was complicated by electoral timetables and the fact that Polish Prime Minister Mr Leszek Miller was recovering from a spine fracture sustained in a helicopter crash.
"There's a number of reasons... the Spanish election, the fact that the Polish prime minister will be out of action for some time following a very serious accident and the European elections and so on," he told the paper.
"So there was a feeling at Brussels that this would drift outwards for maybe a year or more. Can we pick it up? If we believe there's a will to do it, we'll certainly do all we can to move it on."