More than a quarter of the TDs in the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party have arranged private meetings next week with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
Although the meetings are being described as an opportunity to discuss policy and party affairs in general, they are seen by some TDs as akin to job interviews for plum posts when Mr Ahern reshuffles the Cabinet in September.
"You could take the view that fellows who are looking for promotion would definitely be going," said one TD yesterday.
Like all other TDs who were approached yesterday, he said he was not among up to 23 TDs who will meet Mr Ahern next Tuesday and Thursday.
No TD was prepared to speculate as to who might have sought time in private with the Taoiseach, who is shifting his focus back to the domestic agenda after the completion of Ireland's EU presidency.
The meetings follow an invitation from Mr Ahern to meet anyone in the parliamentary party individually after Fianna Fáil's worst local election since the 1920s.
Despite unease among many in the party about a perceived leaning to the right in policy, senior party sources played down the significance of the number of TDs who want to speak privately with Mr Ahern.
The private meetings will follow an afternoon session of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party in Leinster House on Monday, at which the party will continue the post-mortem after its poor showing in the European and local elections.
While the initial response by TDs to the result at a previous meeting heard sustained criticism of the influence of the PDs on the Coalition, such criticism may be heard again on Monday.
However, many TDs have recognised in private that some of the Government's most damaging own-goals and most critical failings in the public service have occurred on the watch of Fianna Fáil ministers.
These include problems in the health service and unhappiness with the Hanly plan; the much-criticised Government backing for the Punchestown Equestrian Centre; the U-turn on electronic voting; and a series of social welfare cuts when the public finances came under pressure.
TDs are likely to call for a loosening of the constraints on expenditure that followed the economic downturn.
They are also expected to raise concern about the impact of the decentralisation plan on the party's vote in Dublin.
