A Wexford Fianna Fail TD, Mr John Browne, will today be elected chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Mr Browne will replace Mr John Ellis, who was forced to step down as chairman and as a member of the committee following pressure from Fine Gael over money owed to western farmers after the collapse of his meat company in the late 1980s.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, contacted Mr Browne, who has been a member of the committee since 1997, yesterday morning and told him the job was his if he wanted it. Mr Browne immediately agreed to have his name put forward for the position.
Yesterday the Limerick West TD, Mr Michael Collins, was appointed to the committee to fill the vacancy left by Mr Ellis.
Mr Browne was first elected to the Dail in 1982 and served as minister of state in the Department of Agriculture between 1992 and 1993.
He has been a controversial and outspoken figure in Fianna Fail and is known to oppose his party's alliance with the PDs.
He got into trouble during the 1997 general election campaign when he said Fianna Fail should not go into government with the party.
He is part of the "Country and Western" set in Fianna Fail, which would include Mr Albert Reynolds, Mr Sean Doherty, and Mr Ellis.
Mr Browne criticised the Progressive Democrat Minister of State, Ms Liz O'Donnell, recently when she said Mr Ellis should consider his position as chair of the agriculture committee.
Mr Browne said the PD Minister should "mind her own business" and let Fianna Fail get on with sorting out its own problems.
He was one of the handful of Fianna Fail backbenchers who expressed serious unease about the Government's intention to join Partnership for Peace without a referendum. Mr Browne said at the time: "I feel we gave a promise to have a referendum. We should proceed with the referendum and let the people decide because certainly there are a lot of mixed views about the PfP."
He said there was a lot of dissatisfaction within the Fianna Fail parliamentary party at the stance being taken by the "hierarchy" of the Government on the issue.
With the appointment of Mr Collins to the 19-member committee yesterday, Fianna Fail now has nine seats. Fine Gael has five and the rest are held by Independents.
One of the Independents is the committee vice-chairman, Mr Harry Blaney. His vote will ensure Mr Browne's election today.
The position is worth £10,000 a year in expenses.