Democratic Left will be wound up in just over two months' time under the terms of a merger deal between it and Labour which the two parties hope to finalise today.
Talks between negotiators from the two parties adjourned after 8 p.m. last night and will resume again this morning with some final issues still to be resolved. Sources in both parties are hopeful that the deal will be agreed today.
Under the draft deal, the formal dissolution of Democratic Left is to be complete by a February 1st deadline. The agreement will first be approved at simultaneous Labour and Democratic Left conferences in three weeks.
The new party will then operate under the name, the Labour Party, but will have transitional arrangements in place until 2001.
A special Labour Party conference will be held in the National Conference Hall on December 12th to approve the deal. Just a couple of minutes' walk away, Democratic Left will hold a conference in the Shelbourne Hotel for the same purpose. A new front bench for the merged party will be announced by the Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, shortly after the Labour and Democratic Left conferences. Mr Quinn and the Democratic Left leader, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, are understood to have discussed the allocation of portfolios during several recent meetings.
There has been some last-minute unease within Labour over arrangements which will allow Mr De Rossa to remain unchallenged as Labour Party president for more than two years. Some rural Labour members fear Mr De Rossa would lose them votes through his perceived hostility to farm and rural interests. He recently opposed both the extension of the Family Income Supplement to farmers and dividing the State into richer and poorer areas for EU funding purposes.
Mr De Rossa's role is not believed to be a sticking point in the talks. The deal makes him president until a 2001 conference, when he can be challenged for the first time. The deal also contains a provision allowing him to run as a Labour Party candidate in next June's European Parliament election. If Mr De Rossa is unsuccessful in the European election he is not expected to contest his Dublin North West constituency in the next general election. Ms Roisin Shortall will be the sole candidate there, with Mr De Rossa having the option of contesting the difficult new three-seat Dublin MidWest constituency.
A transitional leadership group will operate until the 2001 conference, adjudicating on matters of organisation that arise during the transition period. The group will consist of the Labour leader, Mr Quinn, the deputy leader, Mr Brendan Howlin, the Chief Whip, Mr Emmet Stagg, and the Democratic Left leader, Mr De Rossa.
This group will adjudicate in disputes within constituencies on candidate selection. The agreement states explicitly that Democratic Left may nominate candidates in eight constituencies to run alongside candidates from the current Labour Party. These constituencies are Cork East, Cork North Central, Dublin South Central, Dublin South West, Dun Laoghaire, Kildare North, Limerick East and Wicklow.
The party will have co-chairmen - one from the current Labour Party and one from Democratic Left - until the 2001 conference. Labour and Democratic Left will hold simultaneous delegate conferences in Dublin on December 12th to approve the deal. A short period will then be allowed for Democratic Left to wind up the party bureaucracy before the merger comes into effect.