The Labour Party president, Mr Michael D. Higgins, has disputed a statement by party leader Mr Pat Rabbitte that the two had an "understanding" until last week that Mr Higgins would not stand for the presidency. Mark Brennock, Chief Political Correspondent, reports.
Mr Rabbitte said yesterday that when he arrived in Wexford for Labour's two-day parliamentary party meeting last week, he "had a clear understanding with my colleague Michael D. Higgins from last July that he wouldn't be contesting the election".
However Mr Higgins was reported yesterday as disputing this version saying there was no such "understanding" on the issue. The exchange is further evidence of what is widely accepted within Labour as having been poor handling of the question of whether Labour should run a presidential candidate.
While some Labour TDs and senators had believed that Mr Higgins's enthusiasm to stand had waned over the summer, Mr Higgins announced last week that he was indeed willing to stand. The parliamentary party nevertheless decided to recommend against running a candidate, a position endorsed by the party's National Executive Council last Thursday by just one vote.
Some Labour figures have privately expressed criticism of Mr Rabbitte's handling of the issue, suggesting that allowing the issue to drag on and to culminate in a last-minute decision taken by such a narrow margin showed a lack of decisiveness.
However, Mr Rabbitte said yesterday that the difficulties had emerged only when Mr Higgins changed his mind after hearing that the State might refund money spent on a presidential election campaign, and after hearing that Green Party deputy Mr Eamonn Ryan was considering being a candidate.
"What happened last week was one of those things that happens in politics," he said on RTÉ. "I was quite relaxed about the presidency. Perhaps I oughtn't have been. Perhaps I ought to have seen it coming down the line but I was clear that I had an understanding. That didn't hold up at the last minute."
Mr Higgins did not return calls to The Irish Times yesterday evening. However RTÉ reported that Mr Higgins said there was no understanding or agreement on the matter and that in any event, things had moved on over the summer. He also said he now regarded the issue as closed.
Mr Rabbitte is also keen to leave the issue in the past as Labour attempts to recover from what is accepted throughout the party as having been a damaging week for it. While his remarks yesterday were clearly designed to explain the background to the apparent confusion within Labour over how to approach the presidency, they may have further annoyed supporters of Mr Higgins who believe he was badly treated by the party.
The party's National Executive Council will meet next week to discuss electoral strategy in the wake of Mr Rabbitte's declaration of intent in Mullingar to seek a pre-election agreement with Fine Gael.