The future of the Louth TD, Mr Michael Bell, within the Labour Party was in serious doubt last night following a report that he intended to resign from national and local politics.
Efforts by the Labour Party to contact Mr Bell failed yesterday but it is understood friends of the politician were attempting to get him to change his mind and remain a TD for the party.
Sources close to Mr Bell expressed surprise and dismay at his decision to quit politics after failing to win the Labour nomination to contest the Euro-elections next year in Leinster. However, a spokeswoman for Mr Bell said he was not available for comment on the matter and could not be contacted.
A Labour spokeswoman said efforts had continued throughout the day to speak to Mr Bell and to hear directly from him what his plans might be. In the absence of Mr Ruairi Quinn, who was opening the Labour campaign in the Cork South Central by-election, the deputy leader, Mr Brendan Howlin, tried in vain to contact Mr Bell.
Within 24 hours of the selection convention that failed to nominate him as candidate for Europe, Mr Bell faxed the Labour Party offices in Leinster House to say he was stepping down as chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party. No attempt was made by the leadership to put him on the party ticket.
Mr Bell did not attend a special two-day meeting of the PLP in Co Tipperary in the week that followed the convention. However, according to Labour sources, Mr Bell had given no indication of his intention to resign completely from the party when he attended the Dail on Wednesday on the first day of the new term.
It is not thought likely, should he persist with his intention to resign from Labour, that he will attempt to contest the Euro-elections as an independent candidate.