Fianna Fail and Fine Gael efforts to block Mr Derek Nally's entry into the presidential election campaign have been thrown into confusion as conflicting signals emerged from both parties yesterday.
Fianna Fail continued its attempt to thwart Mr Nally while publicly trying to minimise its efforts in this regard. Meanwhile, Fine Gael insisted that its councillors should oppose Mr Nally's nomination although its candidate, Ms Mary Banotti, said she would welcome his nomination.
Eight county councils will meet in the next few days to consider whether to nominate Mr Nally, the president of Victim Support. He needs the backing of four county councils to be nominated, but faces an uphill battle against opposition from the leaderships of the two main parties.
The councils that will meet before nominations close next Tuesday are Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Clare, Cork, Dublin South, Kildare and Louth.
Fianna Fail's director of elections, Mr Noel Dempsey, and a campaign spokesman gave conflicting signals yesterday on whether the party regarded Fianna Fail councillors around the country as free to vote in favour of Mr Nally's nomination.
According to the spokesman, Mr Martin Macken, party headquarters is telling its county councillors that the party expects them to give "full support" to their candidate, Prof Mary McAleese. This message has been given to councillors who have recently telephoned head office for guidance on the matter, he said.
He also confirmed that the party had telephoned several councillors to give them this message. This followed reports of confusion among party councillors in certain areas, he said.
However, Mr Dempsey yesterday denied that his party had instructed its councillors not to support motions nominating Mr Nally as a candidate. "I have issued no directive and I'm not aware of any directive having been issued," he said. "No directive has gone out, none whatever."
The message referred to by Mr Macken stops short of being an explicit directive as referred to by Mr Dempsey. But Fianna Fail councillors in Carlow and Wexford said yesterday that they interpreted it as an instruction not to support motions to nominate Mr Nally.
Fianna Fail members of several of these councils maintained yesterday that they were under instructions from party headquarters not to support Mr Nally.
Meanwhile, Ms Banotti's election agent, Mr Colm Brophy, said last night that Ms Banotti stood by her stated position that the process for nominating presidential election candidates was flawed. "The principle is that the nomination process should be more open, and that applies no matter who is seeking nomination," he said.
He said he was aware that this appeared to conflict with what Fine Gael headquarters had told its councillors. "Fine Gael has its own position, and that is an internal matter for the party. But Mary Banotti is a person in her own right and has expressed her own view."
A Fine Gael spokesman said last night that the party's position remained as stated in a letter from the party general secretary, Mr Jim Miley, to county councillors around the country last week. Mr Miley told them that they should vote against any motion to nominate candidates to run against Ms Banotti.
"Support for any candidate other than the Fine Gael candidate would amount to a breach of the Constitution and Rules and the Code of Conduct which applies to all councillors who take the party whip," the letter says.
The spokesman said Ms Banotti had not asked party councillors to oppose the party whip. He added that Fine Gael had prepared proposals to change the procedure for nominating candidates to run for the Presidency and that these would be published within weeks.