Hopes are rising within the Progressive Democrats of a double pre-election boost which would involve the Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, and former IFA president Mr Tom Parlon declaring themselves as Dáil candidates for the party.
Senior party figures hope that both men will declare for the party before or at the special pre-election national conference which will take place in Limerick on February 9th.
Mr Parlon is expected to meet the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, over the weekend on her return from her honeymoon in Kenya to discuss the prospect of his running for the party in Laois-Offaly, where he would be strong contender for a seat. He said yesterday he was still involved in "tense negotiations" with both Fine Gael and the PDs. He is understood to have met the Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan, on Wednesday.
Mr McDowell could not be contacted for comment yesterday. Negotiations about his rejoining the party and running again in Dublin South East reached an advanced stage over a year ago, only to be broken off inconclusively. There has been persistent speculation since that he will nevertheless run, either for the PDs or as an independent candidate.
PD hopes have risen again in recent days in the belief that the addition of Mr Parlon would encourage Mr McDowell to rejoin the party he left some time after he narrowly lost his Dáil seat in 1997. The two men are believed to have been in contact with each other since Mr Parlon's interest in running for the Dáil became public recently.
Sources close to the Attorney General believe that as a highly political individual, he will find it difficult not to contest the election. However, they say he has found it very difficult to reach a firm decision. Private polls conducted by political parties have shown that he has a good chance of election, but that this is not guaranteed.
The candidacy of the two would give a significant boost to the PDs' prospects of retaining or even improving their Dáil representation, which currently stands at four.