The Taoiseach's office has contacted the owners of the Bass brewery in Belfast about the threatened closure of the 100-year-old plant with the possible loss of over 80 jobs.
A spokesman for the Taoiseach would only confirm yesterday that Mr Ahern was "aware of the situation" in which the brewery will close by September unless a buyer is found.
Mr Ahern, himself a Bass drinker, was asked to intervene by the Sinn Féin president and West Belfast MP, Mr Gerry Adams.
It is understood that the Taoiseach's office contacted the owner of the brewery, Interbrew, to inquire about the situation.
Union leaders at the Belfast plant will consider a boycott of Bass and other Interbrew products if the plant closes as is threatened.
Opened in 1897 in Andersonstown, the brewery is the biggest private employer in west Belfast, an area of high unemployment and also one of the few workplaces to survive the Troubles with a cross-community workforce.
Interbrew bought the brewery four years ago, making Bass and Tennent's lager and kegging Stella Artois.
With a capacity of 500,000 barrels a year, it is still profitable, but after losing a contract for bottling Lucozade, said to be worth about £6 million, Interbrew said the production line would close in early 2005.
Bass Ireland has said that if the brewery, the only producer of Bass on the island, closes, the ale will be imported from Britain.