Mr Martin Cullen appears to have retained his place in the Cabinet after he met the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, yesterday to a discuss a report into the award of lucrative public relations contracts to one of his supporters.
Expectation intensified last night that Mr Cullen would stay on as Minister for Transport following his meeting with the Taoiseach, which took place after the Cabinet met yesterday morning.
It emerged last night that they had spoken, despite earlier indications from Mr Ahern's spokeswoman that no meeting was planned.
Mr Ahern had been considering the report into the contracts secured by Ms Monica Leech since Monday, when it was completed by former Revenue chairman Mr Dermot Quigley.
The report was described as "very thorough" by senior political sources who indicated that it will clear the Minister of wrong-doing in relation to the engagement of Ms Leech by two State Departments under Mr Cullen's control.
The Minister had been under sustained political pressure over the contracts, which are also being examined by the Standards in Public Office Commission, the independent public ethics watchdog.
He had direct political responsibility for the Office of Public Works and the Department of the Environment when contracts were secured by Ms Leech, a Waterford-based public relations consultant who is active in his political circle.
Political sources said last night that the report was likely to say there was no actual breach of tendering procedures, although it may point out weaknesses in the procedures.
The report is believed to have called for a strengthening of the procedures governing the recruitment of outside consultants by Government Departments.
Separate Government sources said the report "will scotch any suggestion" that the secretary general of the Department of the Environment, Mr Niall Callan, expressed any concern about the award of a contract to Ms Leech in 2002.
That contract, which is ongoing, was awarded not long after Mr Cullen was promoted to the Cabinet as minister for the environment.
He was moved to Transport in the reshuffle last autumn.
Under the contract, Ms Leech is paid at a rate of €800 per day for a three-day week, and she has so far received some €300,000 from the Department of the Environment.
It was unclear last night whether Mr Quigley found that the services contracted for differed in any material respect from those provided by Ms Leech.
While there was no tender process when Ms Leech was first hired by the Department, she retained the contract when it was subsequently put to tender.
According to the Government sources, Mr Quigley found that the bids submitted by Ms Leech and by the PR company Carr Communications were assessed "with integrity and fairness" in the tendering process.
