There appears to be no further political sanction that can be imposed on Mr Liam Lawlor following his second jailing for failure to co-operate with the Flood tribunal.
Under pressure from Fianna Fail last year, he resigned not only from the parliamentary party but from the party itself. Under Opposition pressure earlier this year, he resigned from two Dail committees he sat on. His party has now effectively de-selected him as a Dail candidate, choosing two newcomers to contest the Dublin Mid West constituency in his place.
While he has not ruled out running as an Independent at the next general election, he would face a difficult battle in the new three-seat Dublin Mid West constituency. However, he remains a deputy - the Dail cannot remove a member who has been duly elected by the people.
According to the Labour Party, the Government has dragged its feet on a change that could have allowed the House to impose further sanctions on him, up to a three-month suspension from the Dail. The Oireachtas Committee on Members' Interests produced a new draft code of conduct in early May. While the Government did not oppose it, neither has it yet brought the necessary motion to implement it before the House.
Labour's finance spokesman, Mr Derek McDowell, yesterday called for the implementation of this new code of conduct for Oireachtas members. He complained that the Dail was powerless to act, although the Dublin West deputy had "brought the Dail and the political system generally into further disrepute".
He said his own party had published a draft code of conduct following last January's High Court case over Mr Lawlor's non-co-operation with the Flood tribunal, he said.
"The motion was not opposed by the government and the matter was referred to the Committee on Members' Interests," he said. "The committee reported back at the beginning of May and published a new draft for the code of conduct, which would have placed a specific obligation on members `to co-operate with all tribunals of inquiry and other bodies inquiring into matters of public importance established by the Houses of the Oireachtas'."
The committee recommended that there should be a sanction available of up to three months' suspension without pay for breaches of the code. However, the Government's failure to bring a motion before the Dail to bring the code into effect had rendered the Dail powerless to act, Mr McDowell said.
Mr Lawlor resigned from Fianna Fail last year after the party's Standards in Public Life Committee, which investigated payments to its Dublin councillors, strongly criticised Mr Lawlor's dealings with it.
In January this year Mr Lawlor resigned from the two Oireachtas committees, on the eve of a Dail vote that would have removed him from them. The following day the Dail passed a Government motion calling on Mr Lawlor to co-operate fully with the Flood tribunal within the time-frame set out by the High Court, and to resign as a TD if he did not do so.
Mr McDowell claimed yesterday that Mr Lawlor remained "very much part of the Fianna Fail political family". This accusation arises from the fact that he retains an office in the Fianna Fail area of Leinster House, that the party sends him the weekly voting instructions and information given to party deputies, and that he continues to support the Government in Dail divisions.
However, he now appears to have no route back to the party, or onto any future party election ticket. If he is still within the Fianna Fail family he is on the doorstep of the family home with the door almost closed behind him.