The Labour Party leader's ambition to agree a coalition deal with Fine Gael has been strengthened following the last-minute withdrawal of a leading opponent from the race to become the party's vice-chairman.
Henry Haughton quit the race on Friday, just hours before a vote was taken at the party's National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, the first since Pat Rabbitte received resounding support for his strategy from the party's annual conference.
Though Mr Haughton said he was quitting for personal reasons, party sources insist he would have received little support in the election if it had gone to a vote.
Mr Haughton has been a serious irritant to Mr Rabbitte in recent months, particularly after launching his Labour First campaign ahead of the conference debate to keep the party out of any pre-election coalition pact.
Cllr John McGinley, from Maynooth, Co Kildare, a strong supporter of Mr Rabbitte, was elected by the newly-elected NEC, which met on Friday and Saturday, to the party's vice-chair post without a vote.
Mr Haughton, who is working for Labour Dublin North TD Seán Ryan, is now expected to seek a nomination to run for the party in the constituency in the next Dáil election, following Mr Ryan's decision to announce his retirement from national politics at the end of this Dáil.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Sligo and former Sligo/Leitrim TD, Declan Bree, is to face an internal party investigation following his criticisms of two party councillors on Sligo Borough Council, who voted against plans to house Travellers.
Mr Bree was told last week that a complaints committee is now to be established to investigate the issue, on foot of a complaint by Peigín Doyle, secretary of Labour's Sligo/Leitrim constituency organisation.
A list of 13 possible members of the complaints body including former Cabinet minister Barry Desmond has been put forward from which five names will be drawn.
The committee can reject the complaint, suspend Mr Bree or expel him from membership of the party, or it can recommend that no further action be taken.
A complaints committee was established to investigate allegedly racist remarks made by former lord mayor of Cork Joe O'Callaghan, but he quit the party before it ruled.
The row began after Sligo Borough Council voted by seven to four on February 7th against the town's draft Traveller accommodation programme. Two Labour councillors, Veronica Cawley and Jim McGarry, voted with two Fine Gael councillors and three Fianna Fáil councillors, while Mr Bree and three Sinn Féin council members voted in favour of it.
In an interview with the Sligo Champion, Mr Bree said: "The disgraceful decision to vote down the programme compels these Traveller families to continue living in appalling and intolerable conditions.
"How can anyone who claims to share the values of the Labour movement, or how can anyone with an ounce of compassion tolerate such a situation?"
The remarks made by Mr Bree, who was elected to the Dáil in the 1997 election only to lose out five years later and who strongly opposed Mr Rabbitte's coalition strategy during the party's Tralee conference, have caused tensions within Labour's Sligo organisation.
He was called on to apologise for his criticisms of Councillors Cawley and McGarry at a party meeting in late February, but he refused to do so.
