The Taoiseach Mr Ahern is facing demands to jointly fund with the British government a peace dividend to bolster any deal reviving power sharing at Stormont, it emerged tonight.
Sinn Fein sources told reporters that the party was not just asking Chancellor Gordon Brown to provide Treasury funds which could enable a power sharing executive to make a real difference to Northern Ireland society.
"We have been pressing the British Government it makes available resources to a new Assembly and Executive over and above the bloc grant the Six Counties (Northern Ireland) currently receives," a source said.
"The amount of this bloc grant is still a matter for negotiation.
"But Sinn Féin's negotiating team has also proposed to the Irish government that they make a financial contribution to any new institutions."
News that Irish finance minister Mr Brian Cowen could be urged to approve Government funding for a peace dividend came after Northern Ireland Secretary Mr Paul Murphy held separate talks on the proposal with Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionists in London.
Both the DUP leader, the Reverend Ian Paisley and Sinn Féin chairman Mr Mitchel McLaughlin emerged from their meetings with Mr Murphy upbeat about the prospects of a special fund to underpin the resumption of devolution.