Labour's deputy leader, Ms Liz McManus, has said that the party would have to consider supporting the nomination of the Green TD Mr Eamon Ryan in a presidential election if Labour chose not to enter the race.
While some Labour TDs are willing in principle to sign a nomination paper for Mr Ryan if their own party opts out of an election, others expressed reservation about such support last night and said such a step would require detailed consideration.
The party's TDs and senators will decide at a meeting in Wexford today whether they should recommend contesting the election to Labour's national executive. The executive will make the ultimate decision when it meets tomorrow.
Labour is increasingly unlikely to contest what is regarded as an unwinnable election, even though the entry of Mr Ryan raises the prospect of Labour not entering a contest that the party itself was seeking earlier this year.
With little appetite within Labour to fight such a contest, attention now centres on whether Labour TDs will help Mr Ryan to make up the 20 signatures from Oireachtas members that he requires in order to receive a nomination.
The Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, refused to be drawn on this issue yesterday and insisted that Mr Ryan's manoeuvre had not wrong-footed Labour.
However, Ms McManus said that support for Mr Ryan's nomination could not be ruled out. "I think we have to consider that option and I think we have to consider a range of options. So at the moment, as I say, I have a completely open mind," she said.
Mr Rabbitte made little yesterday of his praise for Mr Ryan, whom he described on Monday as the most talented of the new TDs to enter the Dáil in 2002.
"I made some remarks last night which I fervently believed about Eamon Ryan as a TD. I also made a lot of remarks about Michael D. Higgins, but I don't see any reference to them in any commentary today."
While party figures said there was no formal discussion on the Presidency at yesterday's strategy meeting of the parliamentary Labour Party, Mr Rabbitte stressed in a number of media interviews that his priority was to remove the Government from office.
"At the end of the day, the Presidency is a hugely significant and important constitutional office. But that's what it is. It is not an executive office, and our priority is to change the Government," he said.
Both Mr Rabbitte and Ms McManus said yesterday that Mrs McAleese would be very difficult to beat in an election. While Mr Rabbitte said he would like to have a Labour candidate, this had to be balanced against the overall priorities of the party.
He accepted that many in the party were "torn" by the question because of Labour's nomination of Ms Mary Robinson in 1990. However, he said, there were other serious considerations to be borne in mind, "not least the fact that we face two important by-elections in the very near future and a referendum on the European Constitution".
Mr Rabbitte said no party would "wantonly" pass up an election opportunity. "But you simply have to asses the realities and the prospects of success, the costs involved and so on, and I suppose each and everyone one of my colleagues will have a view on that." In addition, the Labour leader referred repeatedly to the cost of running such a campaign, and said he would be foolish not to consider the question of the resources available to the party.
"It costs a lot of money, and any pragmatic organisation has to take that into account. It's only one of the factors but one has to take that into account as well," he said.
"To be honest I'm not sure that that will be the determining factor. But I mean anyone that tells you that they embark upon a major electoral contest with no regard to cost can only do that if they're not concerned about where the money is coming from."
TDs said there was reluctance to commit such expenditure on an election that was unlikely to be successful. In addition, they said, it would be difficult to begin preparing for a campaign now in advance of polling day on October 21st.
The only prospective candidate in Labour is Mr Michael D. Higgins TD, who underwent two knee-replacement operations during the summer. Some of Mr Higgins's colleagues said yesterday that they believed his enthusiasm for such a contest had diminished considerably in recent months.
While Ms McManus said there should always be a contest for the office of President, she was impressed with Mary McAleese.
"I think she has been a very good President and in particular her role in relation to Northern Ireland has been very beneficial," she said.
