In what was potentially the most problematic meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party since he became leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn staunchly denied there was any basis to allegations of political indiscretions and appears to have emerged unscathed from his colleagues' inquiries.
After hearing his explanation at a meeting of the PLP lasting more than two hours last night, TDs and senators claimed that his leadership remained undamaged.
Mr Quinn briefed individual members of the PLP before the meeting called to hear his formal explanation at 6 p.m.
"Overall, his leadership has not been damaged in the slightest at the present time, unless something was to come up to show his assertions were not true," one source said last night.
Normally flamboyant, Mr Quinn was said by colleagues to have been "calm but perhaps a little quieter than usual". However, he showed no signs of being unnerved and was not subjected to criticism during the deliberations.
"The PLP wanted to be reassured that nothing untoward had happened in the Labour Party, which espouses high standards. Nobody liked hearing Vincent Browne indicate that he had the goods to hang him," one TD said.
Mr Quinn's position was immediately bolstered by the support of his deputy, Mr Brendan Howlin, whom he defeated by 37 votes to 27 in the leadership battle last November. Mr Howlin told the meeting that the leadership election had been decided by the party's General Council and was "history now", one member of the PLP said later. Mr Howlin's statement was interpreted as being supportive and magnanimous.
Surprisingly, the PLP meeting paid little attention to claims relating to Mr Quinn's conversation with the deputy chairman of Independent Newspapers, Mr John Meagher, about a poll on the Labour leadership election. The party leader said categorically he did not request that a poll be conducted.
"The issue of the poll was a non-event. It was only mentioned in passing, in fact. Nobody regarded it as an issue because people did not think that the Independent poll influenced the result of the vote in any way last November," one source said.
Instead, they concentrated on donations from the Fitzwilton group during the course of the 1990 presidential election campaign. Mr Quinn told them a cheque was made out by Fitzwilton directly to QMP, the company in which his brother, Conor, is a director. The cheque was made out for work done by QMP during the campaign to elect Mrs Mary Robinson.
"He explained that the money was accounted for. The work was done. There was no question of any impropriety on his part in terms of the way it was handled . . . His explanation was accepted unanimously . . . totally," said one TD.
A party spokesman confirmed that one member of the PLP warned that "outside influences" were attempting to cause divisions in the Labour Party.
Mr Quinn had opened the meeting with heavy-duty reassurances and, following some questions seeking elaboration from his PLP, the discussion broadened out to consider the whole question of political donations.
The view was expressed that there should be State funding only for political parties since the public was not so sceptical of the existing method of donations from the business world. However, the party is to look at this particular issue at a future meeting.
Before last night's discussions, members of the PLP said they believed the controversy was embarrassing to the leadership. Afterwards it seemed to be a case of keeping their fingers crossed and hoping that that the matter had "blown over".