The Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party has strongly opposed efforts to end the ban on below-cost selling in the grocery trade and allow the construction of hypermarkets outside town centres.
The motion before the parliamentary party was moved by Cork East TD, Mr Ned O'Keeffe, who proposed that the review of these issues ordered by the Government should be ended.
The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, made it clear last week that she believed the planning limitations on retail space needed to be reviewed. She said the 1987 Groceries Order, which outlaws the sale of groceries below their wholesale cost price, was also "very actively being looked at to decide whether or not it can play a useful role in driving down inflation".
IKEA, the Swedish flatpack furniture retailer, which wants to establish an outlet here, has complained that the existing limit of 6,000 sq metres for retail warehouses is a bar to entering the Irish market; many IKEA outlets are four times that size.
Mr O'Keeffe's proposal was supported by 11 speakers, the chairman of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party, Mr Seamus Kirk, told The Irish Times last night.
Speakers including Mr Michael Mulcahy and Senator Anne Ormonde agreed that the arrival of "huge hyperstores would be the end for the existing retail structure in Ireland".
Existing retailers have lobbied Fianna Fáil backbenchers in recent days, arguing that inflation rates in Ireland are falling and that huge supermarkets would eventually destroy competition.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, last week said he was reviewing current planning restrictions, which bar supermarkets exceeding 3,500 sq m in Dublin and 3,000 sq m outside the capital. Just over two years ago, the Government accepted that the size of superstores should be capped.
Supporting Mr Cullen's review, the Tánaiste said last week: "If it's the case that large suppliers are prevented from getting in here and enhancing competition, then we should examine whether there are restrictions in our marketplace," she said.
Waiting to see whether Mr Cullen will also lift the cap of 3,000 sq metres on supermarkets (3,500 sq metres in the Greater Dublin area) are the likes of Safeway, Sainsbury's, Walmart, Lidl, Aldi and, of course, Tesco, Ireland's largest food retailer.
A 1999 report commissioned by the Musgrave Group warned that out-of-town hypermarkets could lead to the "collapse" of small and medium-sized towns.
Two large retail outlets managed to evade the cap because they were planned before it was imposed - the B&Q retail warehouse at Liffey Valley, on the M50, and a Tesco "hypermarket" on Malahide Road, due to open this autumn.
IKEA has told the Government it might locate a large outlet in Northern Ireland if it cannot get permission for a suitably-sized store in the Republic. This threat is one of the factors behind the review being carried out by Mr Cullen.
The Green Party spokesman on enterprise and employment, Mr Eamon Ryan TD, said such stories would be "an environmental and transport disaster as motorways leading to them become clogged with traffic."