The Labour Party is to table a no-confidence motion in the Government today as deep tensions emerge between Fianna Fail backbenchers and the party leadership over the O'Flaherty nomination.
Last night the party summoned at least six TDs who have publicly criticised the appointment to the Government Chief Whip's office one by one to tell them to curb their public criticisms.
In what one source described as a "severe dressing down", the chairman of the Fianna Fail Parliamentary Party, Dr Rory O'Hanlon, and the Government Chief Whip, Mr Seamus Brennan, asked the TDs to make their criticisms in private rather than through the media.
Meanwhile, three Fianna Fail deputies, Ms Marion McGennis, Mr John McGuinness and Mr Eddie Wade, were defeated at a party meeting last night in their attempts to have Mr O'Flaherty invited to give evidence before an Oireachtas Committee.
During a tense and acrimonious meeting of the 10 FF members of the Committee on Justice, Equality and Women's Rights, a decision to vote down the Labour motion calling for the judge to be invited or compelled to attend was passed by seven votes to three.
Several of the seven argued that they must take this course of action as this was the wish of the Cabinet and the party leadership.
Fianna Fail's parliamentary party will this morning hold a post-mortem on the collapse of the party vote in the Tipperary South by-election. Strong criticism of the nomination of Mr O'Flaherty is expected to be voiced by a significant number of TDs and senators.
Meanwhile, Labour will this morning add to the pressure on the Government, tabling a motion of no confidence in the Coalition. It is usual for a government immediately to table a motion of confidence in itself and to allocate government time for a debate. This would mean a debate and vote would probably take place before the Dail rises on Friday until October 3rd.
Fine Gael pledged last night to support the motion, which will further embarrass the PDs and put pressure on some of the Independents who traditionally support the Government. However, there is no indication that the Government could lose the narrow majority it usually has on such motions.
As the controversy rolls on, up to late last night there was understood to have been no contact between Government representatives and Mr O'Flaherty on how to end the political impasse.
With Ministers privately echoing the view of their Cabinet colleague, Ms Mary O'Rourke, that the public will remember this issue in the long term, a withdrawal by Mr O'Flaherty would be welcomed by many Ministers, who now see it as the only way out of the present debacle. Mr McCreevy robustly defended his nomination once again yesterday, saying it was the Government's intention to proceed with it. Asked if he still believed Mr O'Flaherty was the best person available to fill the position he replied: "I certainly do." A spokesman for the Taoiseach also said there was no change in the position.
The European Investment Bank yesterday would not say at what stage the nomination of Mr O'Flaherty was, or when it was likely to be completed. A spokesman said the bank did not normally comment on the progress of the appointment procedure as it was "internal to the bank". He also declined to say how long the procedure normally takes.
It is likely that at this stage Mr O'Flaherty's name has been circulated to the bank's directors. If they approve the nomination, the name is then sent to each of the governors of the bank, who are the EU finance ministers. The governors must each approve the nomination in writing.
Mr McCreevy confirmed yesterday that the appointment process was under way and that he had written to the EIB asking it to "expedite" the process.
The PD Minister of State, Ms Liz O'Donnell, distanced herself and her party from the nomination again yesterday, agreeing that the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance were the most wedded to the nomination.
Speaking on RTE radio she said: "I believe there is enormous pressure on those people who made that decision, and it is open to the Government to consider a reversal of it. It will have to be a collective Cabinet reversal." The alternative was Mr O'Flaherty "walking away from this poisoned chalice".
She said she believed Ms Harney regretted her comment that the public would forget about this in a few months. "It's not true that people will forget this. It has offended people's sense of justice," Ms O'Donnell said.
The act of "misplaced political patronage" should be "neutralised in some way" at this stage, she said.