Fine Gael leader Mr Michael Noonan last night ruled out the prospect of former minister Mr Michael Lowry ever rejoining the party.
Mr Noonan said Mr Lowry "will not be back in Fine Gael for so long as I am leader and I cannot envisage circumstances in which he would be back under any other leader".
His comments, on RTE's Questions and Answers programme, contrast sharply with the view of his predecessor, Mr John Bruton. Last year, Mr Bruton said in an interview with this newspaper, Mr Bruton said that when Mr Lowry had regularised his affairs and paid whatever he owed to society, it could be open to him to rejoin the party.
However, Mr Noonan effectively closed off this prospect of rehabilitation for Mr Lowry, who is at the centre of renewed controversy over his decision to award the State's second mobile phone licence to Mr Denis O'Brien's Esat company.
Mr Noonan said the current controversy was "as embarrassing for Fine Gael as anything emerging from the tribunals concerning Fianna Fail".
He said there was "no suggestion at this stage" that anything untoward had taken place in relation to the awarding of the licence.