The Progressive Democrats will debate a motion calling on the party to enter a pre-election pact with Fianna Fáil, when they meet in Limerick this weekend for their national conference.
The party leader and Tánaiste, Mary Harney, will make the case for further tax cuts during the conference.
The motion calling for a pact with Fianna Fáil has been submitted by Sierna Campbell from the Meath East constituency, who ran for the party in last year's byelection in Meath and who has been selected to contest the next general election.
A party spokeswoman said yesterday that Ms Campbell had tabled the motion in response to the feedback she is getting from voters in Meath who would like to see the present Government continuing in office.
Current party policy commits the PDs to fighting the election as an independent party; even if the motion were carried on Saturday it would require a full delegate conference to sanction a pre-election pact.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell and the party TD for Dublin South, Liz O'Donnell, are due to speak in the debate on election strategy. Mr McDowell delivered a major speech in February, saying he would be equally comfortable serving in a government led by Bertie Ahern or Enda Kenny.
Another motion calls for a full debate at the conference on the options open to the party after the next election. A motion from the PD national executive calls for the abandonment of the electronic voting experiment, on the basis that the current system has served the country well and has educated the public in the intricacies of the PR system.
Dún Laoghaire TD Fiona O'Malley will propose a motion calling on the Minister for the Environment to address the "alarming inaccuracies" in the electoral register by introducing a new system based on PPS numbers.
A series of motions calling on the party to pursue a policy of providing the country's energy supply from renewable sources will be debated, as well as one calling on the Government to split the ESB's generating capacity into competing firms.
A guest speaker at the party leader's dinner tomorrow evening is consumer advocate Eddie Hobbs, whose television series Rip-Off Republic last autumn was highly critical of the Government.
