Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte warned National Executive Council members yesterday not to question his judgment about the party's future support for Green Party TD, Mr Eamon Ryan, in his bid to run for President.
Such a move, he said, would be regarded as a direct challenge to his leadership, during extraordinary exchanges at the end of last evening's NEC meeting.
Though the debate about Labour's own participation in the election race was "courteous and civilised", matters briefly became acrimonious after a close 13-12 vote in favour of not running a candidate was announced.
Following the vote, trades' union delegate, Mr Frank Barry, one of a number of delegates doubtful of offering support to the Greens, pushed for a debate about Labour's future attitude to Mr Ryan.
Clearly irked by both the tightness of the result and by Mr Barry's question, Mr Rabbitte became visibly angry, sources told The Irish Times following the end of the three-hour meeting.
He said, "You will have to trust me to deal with this in a tactical fashion in the interests of the Labour party. If you don't have that confidence, then let's have that discussion now," The Irish Times was told.
Mr Rabbitte later analysed and criticised the contributions of some speakers, emphasising that "we will have to come back to these matters again".
The NEC members had decided at the beginning that they would deal with the Presidential issue, and then adjourn for 15 minutes "to let Pat talk to the media" before resuming.
Given the length of time spent on the issue of the Presidency, to which every single voting member present contributed, the majority of delegates subsequently decided that they did not want to reform.
Some delegates, however, had wanted to debate the so-called "Mullingar Accord", the local council coalition deal announced between Labour and Fine Gael on Westmeath County Council.
The pact, though hardly significant in content, was not referred to the NEC before Mr Rabbitte jointly launched it along with Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, to the annoyance of a number of NEC members.
Clearly unwilling to have the debate on the accord yesterday, Mr Rabbitte said it was postponed until October 16th.
Since his election, Mr Rabbitte has been criticised privately by a number of Labour figures for not spending enough time building a relationship with the NEC.
"He thinks he is still back in Democratic Left, where people do what they are told," one senior TD told The Irish Times last night, who said Labour's performance over the election in the last week has "been nothing short of a shambles".
Mr Rabbitte outlined the reasons - electoral, financial and others - why he believed Labour should not fight the campaign.
Dealing with the Green Party, Mr Rabbitte once again said that that Labour should be prepared to offer support to a like-minded politician of the left, though all sides understood that this support would not include money.
In his eight-minute speech to the meeting, which was described as "brilliant" by one observer, Mr Higgins outlined the reasons why Labour should do so.
Mr Higgins emphasised that he was not simply serving his own interests in expressing his interest to join the race. A debate followed that allowed all those present to express their views. "It was nip-and-tuck all the way. At one stage it looked as if it would come down to the casting vote of the NEC chairwoman ," The Irish Times was told.
Labour, another source said, had made it clear earlier this year that it would decide its final attitude in September: "We said this and we have now done it."
The motion to contest the presidency was moved by Cllr John McGinley, and seconded by Alderman Declan Bree and Mr Michael D. Higgins.
