Tánaiste Michael McDowell today refused to debate the circumstances surrounding a payment of stg£8,000 (€12,000) from a group of businessmen in Manchester to the Taoiseach while Mr Ahern was minister for finance in the 1990s.
Under pressure from Opposition in the Dáil this morning, however, Mr McDowell suggested party whips meet and arrange for discussions to be held in the House next week.
"I am not in a position and do not intend to have a wider debate on these issues here today. Full stop," Mr McDowell said amid shouts from the benches opposite.
Government Chief Whip Tom Kitt later met with his counterparts and proposed a five-minute statement from the Taoiseach at the start and end of five five-minute statements from Opposition party spokespersons next Tuesday.
But after meeting with Mr Kitt this afternoon, Labour Party chief whip Emmet Stagg dismissed his proposals for a debate as a total retreat.
"The backtracking from what was apparently available this morning and the postponement twice of the meeting of Party Whips this morning all point to a growing degree of chaos and instability within government," Mr Stagg said. He said the protocols used when former minister Ray Burke was called to account in the Dail in 1997, and Mr Ahern addressed allegations by property developer Tom Gilmartin in 1999, should be used again.
On that occasion statements were followed by a question-and-answer session.
Earlier today PD deputy leader Liz O'Donnell said the Taoiseach still has issues to address in relation to the Manchester payment.
"There hasn't been the same level of scrutiny or inquiry in relation to those matters. The Taoiseach proffered this information about the Manchester payments quite late in the day," she told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
Mr Ahern has admitted he received a payment for a speaking engagement in Manchester in addition to getting around €50,000 from a group of friends at the time of his marriage break-up in the early 1990s.
Last night, Mr McDowell described the Taoiseach's acceptance of money from friends in 1993 and 1994 as "an honest error of judgment".
Mr McDowell also insisted that although Mr Ahern should not have taken the money, despite the difficult circumstances, the issue had not compromised his position as minister for finance.
Today in the Dáil, party leaders were allowed to make statements on the matters.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said about Mr McDowell's statement last night: "Your determination of the Taoiseach's action as being an honest error of judgment is simply incredible in your capacity as minister for justice and as Tánaiste and deputy leader of the Government."
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte started his statement by congratulating Mr McDowell in his new position as Tánaiste and PD leader.
"Certainly any morning you wake up and find that a hitman has been executed and a house sprayed with bullets, a garda wounded and 10 million pounds [sic] of drugs landed at a private airport, the Tánaiste needs all the assistance that we can offer him," he quipped.
Mr Rabbitte asked Mr McDowell was there "any particular reason why he didn't refer to the Manchester money at all in his statement?
"Can I ask him whether he is going to cause any action to be taken to establish whether or not the Revenue Commissioners . . . gave clearance to the payments involved?"
At one stage during proceedings Ceann Comhairle Rory O'Hanlon stopped Independent Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins from speaking and threatened to throw him out of the House.
"If you're not happy with the standing orders, you know what to do," he told Mr Higgins.
