An Oireachtas committee is set to tell the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, that he should use taxes or development levies to recoup some of the windfall profits made by property speculators when their land is rezoned.
Mr Ahern will also be told that local authorities should be given the power to acquire land from speculators for significantly less than its market value by paying just 25 per cent over agricultural prices, even if the property is zoned for residential use.
This could be achieved if the Government empowered local authorities to acquire development land based on its current use instead of its zoning status, according to a draft report by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution.
The committee, chaired by the Fianna Fáil Cork TD Mr Denis O'Donovan, initiated its examination a year ago at the specific request of the Taoiseach.
It will tell Mr Ahern in the coming weeks that there is no constitutional obstacle to the introduction of specific measures to control the price of land.
While Mr Ahern has said the Government was prepared to seek a constitutional amendment, the committee has concluded that measures proposed in 1973 by Mr Justice Kenny could be introduced in legislation and "would almost certainly pass constitutional challenge". Such measures would be designed as a disincentive to hoard land.
"The planning system as operated at present facilitates those with the resources to buy up development land and hold on to it. This . . . creates a distortion of the market," the report says.
Completed in the past 10 days, the draft also says that positive legislation to give a right of access to hill-walkers to the countryside is not required. It says a non-binding code should outline a general principle of access.
In addition, it says the Government should prepare legislation to abolish ground rents and introduce a system of compensation for recipients of such rents.
It calls for a revision of the "Byzantine" legislation governing the compulsory acquisition of land and says a rewording of the constitutional provisions on property is "desirable" if not "strictly necessary".
The report calls for a reform of the planning system. It proposes State or independent regulation of the market information provided by estate agents, and says local authorities should use development levies to fund social housing.
