€20 and a one-page form could see Bertie back in Fianna Fáil

To be readmitted, Mr Ahern would have to pay the annual fee and fill out a form. Picture: Gareth Chaney

A payment of €20 and filling out a one-page form is all that former taoiseach Bertie Ahern needs to do to rejoin Fianna Fáil.

Senior party sources have said that to be readmitted as an ordinary member, Mr Ahern would have to pay the annual fee, fill out the form, and his application would be considered.

There is no special mechanism to readmit a former taoiseach, sources have said, adding that Mr Ahern could, should he wish, be back in the fold in time for the party’s ard fheis in Dublin at the end of the month.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that he is open to Mr Ahern’s return to the party, a decade after he resigned after the Mahon Tribunal found against him over his financial affairs.

“Certainly we would give that consideration,” Mr Martin said in response to questions about calls from the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party for Mr Ahern to be allowed to rejoin the party.

"I'm saying as far as I'm concerned it's 10 years on," he said, signalling a view that Mr Ahern had paid his dues.

While relations between Mr Martin and Mr Ahern were frosty for a number of years after his resignation, it has emerged that the two have been "engaging with" each other for more than a year on issues around the Northern Ireland Protocol. Mr Martin said:

He's heavily involved in Northern Ireland issues; he maintains contacts with different groups. I think he has a valuable insight into all of that.

A spokeswoman for Mr Ahern told the Irish Examiner that he would not be commenting, saying “there is nothing to add”, but she did confirm the contacts with the Taoiseach in relation to the North in recent months.

“He has been working with [the] Taoiseach on the North in recent months. This issue of him re-joining the party has arisen before and he really has nothing more to say,” the spokeswoman said.