A merger between the Labour Party and Democratic Left is expected to be approved at separate party conferences in early December and to take effect early next year, The Irish Times has learned.
Intense discussions in recent weeks have overcome most differences over policy, constituency rivalries and frontbench positions, according to reliable sources. Several issues remain to be agreed, but senior figures in both parties now believe the deal is almost certain to go ahead.
Democratic Left has agreed that the new entity will be called the Labour Party, because of the "brand recognition" among voters.
Democratic Left's executive will meet today to approve the postponement of the party conference due to take place in Dun Laoghaire on November 13th. The most likely dates for the conference are December 5th or 12th, with Labour to hold a special conference within a week of DL's approval of the deal.
The postponement is to allow an extra few weeks to resolve the outstanding issues. Teams of negotiators, led by the Labour deputy leader, Mr Brendan Howlin, and Mr Eamonn Gilmore of Democratic Left, met again this week and are said to be close to final agreement. In the first of the three main areas of discussion, that of policy, negotiators are believed to have used a document agreed by the two parties in 1992 as the basis for discussion.
Some policy issues remain problematic. Earlier this week, for example, the DL leader, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, and the Labour foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Dick Spring, indicated very different views on Ireland's involvement in European security organisations when they spoke at the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee.
The second issue, that of constituency rivalries, is most difficult in the constituency Mr De Rossa shares with Labour's Ms Rois in Shortall, Dublin North West. The number of seats in the constituency has been reduced from four to three, making it almost impossible for both to be elected.
The most likely solution is that one of the two would move to the new three-seat constituency, Dublin Mid West, and become the sole candidate there of the merged party.
In an expression of the existing Labour organisation's determination that Ms Shortall will not be moved, a Labour selection convention for the constituency has been organised for Monday next, at which Ms Shortall is certain to be selected as the sole candidate.
The Labour organisation in Dublin South Central, where the sitting Labour deputy, Mr Pat Upton, is also unenthusiastic about the merger, also plans to hold a selection convention soon. If the parties merge, the former Democratic Left TD, Mr Eric Byrne, would be expected to join Mr Upton on a Labour ticket.
It is understood there have been intense discussions on the third issue, that of frontbench positions, although these have not taken place between the formal negotiating teams but on an individual one-to-one basis within and between the two parties.
Sources in both parties believe Mr De Rossa will be given a leadership position of some kind. Whether that will be the deputy leadership of the party, a shared deputy leadership with the current one, Mr Brendan Howlin, or some new leadership-type post, is not clear.
In addition, DL is understood to expect senior frontbench portfolios for its other three deputies, Mr Pat Rabbitte, Mr Eamonn Gilmore and Ms Liz McManus. This is certain to involve the discomfiting of some existing Labour spokesmen and women, but reliable sources say the intensive discussions, including meetings between the two party leaders, Mr Ruairi Quinn and Mr De Rossa, have resolved many of the difficulties involved in devising a front bench.
Approval of the deal by both parties in December would be followed by an integration period, during which Democratic Left would take the steps necessary to wind up the party as a separate entity and merge with Labour. This includes closing down its office, integrating its headquarters staff with that of Labour and producing a single membership list.
The Labour Party's biennial conference, scheduled for the spring, would then be used as a major launch of the new party in advance of the June 1999 European and local elections.