The Tanaiste has told her party's governing body that the stability of the Government could be affected by revelations from the tribunals. Ms Harney's comments on the cohesion of the Coalition were delivered on Saturday when the general council met to hear a report from its commission for renewal, established in September to examine why the Progressive Democrats' Dail numbers fell from eight to four in the general election a year ago.
While she hoped that the Government would run to full term, the Progressive Democrats should not take this for granted. They must remain vigilant in the event of revelations emerging from the tribunals which would affect the cohesion of the Coalition.
Events of the last few weeks had demonstrated that anything could happen, she added. A spokesman for the party last night said Ms Harney was "pointing out the possibility that at some stage or other, the stability of the Government could be affected by the revelations of the tribunals".
"This possibility exists all the time. She made it clear that the two parties in Government were still working effectively to implement our policy objectives, with work already under way on the shape of the October Budget," the spokesman added.
The internal study into the Progressive Democrats' performance in the last general election has blamed its pre-election association with Fianna Fail and two controversial proposals - on unmarried mothers and cutbacks in public service jobs - for its "serious setback" at the polls.
In future, the PDs should contest all elections as a completely independent party and formal or informal pacts with other parties should be avoided. Implying that its pre-election involvement with Fianna Fail in 1997 damaged the party, the commission says an independent strategy should apply whether the party was coming out of government or not.
After an election, the party should be willing to open negotiations with "all" other democratically mandated parties. The Progressive Democrats ruled out a coalition with Labour before the last general election. The commission report also suggests the Progressive Democrats were "victims of our own success" and "many voters no longer see us as being relevant". This was partly because all the parties had moved to the centre and the Progressive Democrats' Northern policy had been realised in the Belfast Agreement, according to the report.
The document states that "unfortunately, during the campaign, a party founded and based on the most patriotic and selfless of policies was portrayed in some quarters as harsh, uncaring and sectional". In a clear reference to the electoral pitfalls of unmarried mothers and public service job cuts, the commission said it was "unfortunate that we ourselves contributed to that perception".
The report attributes no direct blame to party leader Ms Harney, but points a critical finger at the strategy committee which was appointed to take the party through the 1997 election. It comprised Ms Harney; former TD Mr Michael McDowell; the assistant Government press secretary, Mr John Murray, and Mr Maurice Roche, who was generally recognised as having drawn up the strategy on 25,000 job cuts in the public service.
According to the report, this group should have been aware of public opinion and should have been more responsive to attack. Instead of concentrating on devising an overall strategy for the party, it dealt with the nuts and bolts of the election campaign. In future, such a committee should be "run on proper lines" and be better organised in dealing with controversies like those which dogged the party in the last election.
The group was also blamed for not putting more effort into managing Ms Harney's time during the campaign. Though the most popular party leader at the time, she became involved in day-to-day "housekeeping", which was a serious strategic error.