Taoiseach Bertie Ahern last night asserted strong control over the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, as it agreed not to support calls for a new backbencher-controlled policy committee.
Nearly 30 TDs and Senators spoke at the well-attended meeting, which lasted for nearly four hours in the party's Leinster House rooms, with an interruption for a Dáil vote.
The Taoiseach pointedly told the meeting that he would have preferred if the TDs had approached him directly about the establishment of the committee before 16 TDs signed a letter last week supporting the new group.
His remarks contradict comments he made in Kilkenny last Friday when he claimed he had been told about the plans by Dún Laoghaire TD Barry Andrews over a month ago.
A large number of TDs complained about the way in which the proposal emerged into the public arena, in a report in The Irish Times on Friday, arguing that it created a poor image for the party.
Clearly well prepared, the Taoiseach quickly proposed to create new groups to examine policy proposals, and insisted that he was completely supportive of TDs wishing to be more involved.
Plans for a meeting tomorrow between the Taoiseach and four of the TDs behind the proposal - Barry Andrews, John McGuinness, Jim Glennon and John Moloney - have now been abandoned.
Some of the 16 TDs who signed last week's call for a new backbencher-controlled grouping were equally unhappy about the way in which it was disclosed, insisting that they had not wanted to create division within the party ranks.
Ministers will hold four meetings with backbenchers during July on economic and social issues, agriculture and rural development and "quality of life" concerns.
The outcome from these new groupings, which were unanimously supported by the meeting, will feed into the parliamentary party's two-day meeting in Westport, Co Mayo, in early September.
Last night, Carlow/Kilkenny TD John McGuinness, who was one of the prime movers behind the proposal, along with Dublin North TD Jim Glennon, said he was happy with the outcome.
"In fact, the Taoiseach has gone further than even I wanted him to go in the way in which TDs will have an input into the election manifesto," he told The Irish Times late last night.
The four new committees may change in time into one grouping, but the party leadership would control it, Government Chief Whip Tom Kitt emphasised last night.
"The organisation in the party is run by the leader, the deputy leaders, the parliamentary party chairman, the chief whip and the assistant whip," Mr Kitt told political correspondents last night.
The parliamentary party already has a number of policy committees, though backbenchers complain that many of them are controlled by Ministers and produce little of value.
Laois Offaly TD John Moloney, chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and one of the 16 signatories of the letter, told the meeting that he regretted the leaking of the letter, but the interpretation of it as a rebellion against the party leadership was mischievous and misleading.
He said he still believed that the establishment of structures to enable backbench TDs to have a meaningful input on the formulation of policy was needed and that the concept of the committee was born out of frustration that the current committee structures were not working adequately.
He also said some had taken the opportunity presented by the controversy over the committee to further their own political agendas.