The Taoiseach has ordered that the heads of the Bill to set up a permanent ethics commission should be brought before Cabinet within two weeks.
This instruction was issued to the Department of Finance, which is preparing the legislation, when the new controversies surrounding Mr Ray Burke arose last week.
Mr Ahern said at the weekend he hoped the necessary legislation would be introduced in the Dail in the autumn. The ethics commission, he said, would examine allegations of political wrongdoing and corruption.
Departing from his prepared script at the national Fianna Fail women's conference on Saturday to address "other events", the Taoiseach said such a commission could work in a way that was inclusive, comprehensive and visible to the public. "It would not be a case of the robbers investigating the robbers. It would be done in a way that everyone could see, and we are going to do it," he added.
Government sources indicated last night that a retired or sitting High Court judge would be appointed to chair the ethics commission, with a couple of permanent staff. The chairperson could recruit specialist staff, if required, when allegations relating to the propriety of politicians' actions were being investigated.
It was also learned last night that the Government has decided to give the Flood tribunal the same terms of reference for Mr Burke as the Moriarty tribunal has to investigate payments to Mr Charles Haughey and Mr Michael Lowry. These terms will empower the Flood tribunal to follow the money trail to Mr Burke and examine any relevant decisions during his period in government.
This decision should stave off a row in the Dail where Opposition parties were poised to object to the proposal that the tribunal could only investigate the motives of the donor for giving political donations. This thinking was signalled in the Government's amendment to the Opposition par ties' motion in the Dail last week.
On Saturday, Mr Ahern stressed there was an obligation to deal with what had happened in the past, "and we are going to do that in Fianna Fail. We are honest and straight people. We work for the community," he added. "If we had problems in the past and if they were wrong - and they were wrong - we have corrected them now and they will be right in the future," he continued.'
"If other things come up, we will deal with those as well, but what we are not going to allow people do is judge the present with what happened in the past."
Mr Ahern suggested that the ethics commission could deal with anonymous letters or allegations of wrongdoing "so that there would be a permanent tribunal there to investigate these matters". He knew there was no huge support for the idea in some sections of the media because it might be seen to put them out of business in doing their job. "We are still going to do that as a party because I believe it should be done".