Mrs Maire Geoghegan-Quinn is expected to seek a Fianna Fail nomination to contest the Presidency, despite Mr Albert Reynolds's declaration that he wants to be the party's candidate.
Party sources say they expect her to declare her interest soon. It is understood the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has taken soundings to determine her level of interest. Members of the parliamentary party will this week receive a letter from Mr Reynolds formally telling them he wants the nomination.
Mrs Geoghegan-Quinn is on holiday and was unavailable for comment last night. Should Mr Reynolds and she find themselves contesting the nomination, it is likely to be a hard-fought battle between two one-time close political allies, given that she played a key role in helping him become party leader and Taoiseach in 1992.
Last January Mrs Geoghegan-Quinn, a former minister and TD for Galway West, sent shock waves through the political establishment when she announced she would retire from politics at the next general election following publicity surrounding the expulsion of her 17-year-old son from boarding school.
She said that when "politics demands - and wrongly demands - that a TD's family members serve as expendable extensions of the elected member, I will not serve."
However, as speculation intensified about a successor to the President, Mrs Robinson, in recent weeks, Mrs Geoghegan-Quinn has been careful not to rule herself out.
Meanwhile, backbench support has emerged for Mr Reynolds in the initial response from his party colleagues, with some deputies privately claiming he would still have support within the parliamentary party even if Mr John Hume made himself available as an agreed candidate.
Although no deputy contacted by The Irish Times yesterday would publicly declare support for Mr Reynolds, a number privately said that he would be a strong candidate, given that he is a former Taoiseach and party leader who helped broker the first IRA ceasefire in August 1994.
Mrs Geoghegan-Quinn would also have support, although some deputies questioned her credibility following her declaration that she was leaving politics to protect her privacy. However, she is viewed as somebody likely to be endorsed by Fianna Fail's government partners, the Progressive Democrats.
In the Fianna Fail-Labour government that came to power in January 1993, Mr Reynolds made her minister for justice, the first woman to be appointed to the post. When that government fell, she intended running for the leadership of Fianna Fail, but decided not to push the issue to a vote in the parliamentary party when it became clear that Mr Ahern would win convincingly.
Fine Gael will next month choose either the Dublin MEP, Ms Mary Banotti, or Senator Avril Doyle, as its candidate, while the former Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Mr Michael D. Higgins, is understood to be the only Labour figure interested in the nomination so far.
Nominations for the Presidency will close on September 30th and polling will take place on October 30th.
