Progressive Democrat figures are continuing to give differing interpretations of an internal PD letter backing Michael McDowell's contention that Mary Harney had indicated that she would step down as party leader before the next election.
The letter from the party's trustees to Ms Harney, read out at a PD parliamentary party meeting last week, makes clear that the trustees believed Ms Harney would stand down as party leader before the next election.
In the letter the trustees reminded Ms Harney that she had said she would not be leading the party into the election and had changed her mind about the timing of her departure.
The contention that Ms Harney had changed her mind was at the core of Mr McDowell's case in a row over the PD leadership that has convulsed the party for close to a fortnight.
In their letter the trustees - Paul McKay, Brendan Malone and Noreen Slattery - warned Ms Harney that her decision to lead the party into the next election could make the Minister for Justice's position untenable and they added that if he were lost to the party, they would resign.
However, the chairman of the PD parliamentary party, Senator John Dardis, insisted yesterday that the letter had been "even-handed" in its conclusions.
"It said it would be catastrophic for the party if Michael McDowell were to leave the party. It also said that if the roles were reversed, it would be catastrophic if Mary Harney were to [ leave]," he said on RTÉ's The Week in Politics programme.
While suggesting the letter was being misinterpreted or "selectively leaked", the party refused to release the full text yesterday.
The leaders of the main Opposition parties sought to capitalise on the PDs' internal difficulties as well as the tension within Fianna Fáil over backbenchers' demands to be given a greater voice in policy.
"The Government is no longer governed by a two-party coalition but by a federation of factions," the Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said yesterday. "We have an unstable Government in battle with itself."
Speaking with Mr Kenny at a joint Fine Gael/Labour launch of proposals on how to deal with the aftermath of the crisis over the law on sex offences against children, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said: "There is absolutely no communication, or very little, between the Minister for Justice and the Tánaiste. On the other hand Fianna Fáil backbenchers are expressing total frustration" at how they are treated.
He said the description of the relationship between Ms Harney and Mr McDowell came not from the Opposition, but from the trustees of the Progressive Democrats.