Tánaiste Michael McDowell has strong support in his own party for the stand he has taken on the need for the Taoiseach to deal more openly with the Manchester payment. However, there are concerns about the difficult political position in which it has placed the Progressive Democrats.
In public and in private, the party is presenting a united front following the recent upheavals which led to Mary Harney's decision to step down as Tánaiste and leader of the party.
There was a general acceptance within the party that the most likely outcome of the current crisis would be that the PDs would have to pull out of Government. But there is confusion about what will happen after that.
One member of the parliamentary party pointed to Mr McDowell's statement that the primary issue about the Manchester payment was not its tax status but its status in terms of standards and whether that could be defended.
"That comment was significant because there is no way the PDs can defend the Manchester payment or indeed the other payments to Bertie in terms of standards. We cannot accept that that standard of political behaviour is acceptable. It's as simple as that, so it looks as if we are on the way out," he said.
What most of the PDs are privately hoping for is that Bertie Ahern will step down as Fianna Fáil leader and be replaced by a new taoiseach, but they are not sure if this will happen.
Mr McDowell sent a clear signal on this point yesterday by saying that the PDs were committed to governing in accordance with the programme for government. "I've no doubt that the people of Ireland want us to do that with Fianna Fáil," he said.
That was being interpreted within the PDs as a strong hint to Fianna Fáil that if there was a change of leadership, the Coalition could continue until the end of its term. The strong likelihood that that will not happen, unless something else emerges to make Mr Ahern's position untenable, worried some PDs.
"The real danger for us is that Fianna Fáil continue on in Government and deliver a massive giveaway budget. In the meantime we will have left office and will be sitting over on the Opposition benches. Fianna Fáil will savage us for leaving and the Opposition parties will savage us as potential rivals, so we could be on a hiding to nothing," said one prominent party member.
Another made the same point, but added it would be even worse to stay in power and underwrite the kind of standards exhibited by the Taoiseach.
