Fianna Fáil was making frantic efforts to keep Limerick East TD Mr Peter Power on side today amid concerns he would quit the party if Det Garda Jerry McCabe's killers are released.
Mr Power, who lives just yards from the slain Garda's widow Mrs Anne McCabe, has told Taoiseach Mr Ahern of the huge groundswell of opinion in the city and the anger triggered by threats that the four Castlerea prisoners would be released.
He said: "I had a long discussion with the Taoiseach and expressed the very difficult situation we are facing in Limerick. "Feelings are running very high about this because of the proximity of Anne McCabe to the people.
She is a highly respected person in the community and the people are siding with her very strongly." Mr Power told Mr Ahern he was looking forward to seeing the final details of the British and Irish Government's proposals.
He admitted he has been the subject of personal abuse in his constituency by people protesting at the possibility of the prison gates being thrown open to the gunmen.
As fears grew that the TD would resign, the Taoiseach's office was in contact with him this morning, just hours before Mr Ahern and British prime minister Tony Blair were expected to release details of their efforts to reach a deal.
Mr Ahern has warned there would be no deal on the restoration of Northern Ireland's political institutions unless the gang of four is released.
But the Labour Party said the Taoiseach had been "callous and deceitful" to leave Mrs McCabe and her family believing that the Government's promise in writing from the former Minister for Justice Mr John O'Donoghue still stood when he had, in fact, decided to concede to Sinn Fein if he got what he wanted from them.
This leaves the public in the position of not being able to trust the leader of the country to keep a promise, and leaves the McCabe family feeling betrayed.
Pearse McAuley, Jeremiah Sheehy, Kevin Walsh and Michael O'Neill are serving between 11 and 14 years for the manslaughter of the 52-year-old detective, gunned down in a hail of bullets in the botched robbery attempt of a post office van in Adare in Co Limerick in June 1996.