De Rossa to become president in proposed Labour, DL merger

Mr Proinsias De Rossa will become president of the Labour Party, according to proposals contained in the draft agreement on a merger with Democratic Left.

The negotiating teams for the two parties hope to conclude the merger document by Thursday week, November 19th, with a view to having it ratified by special delegate conferences by mid-December.

The agreement also contains details of a deal between Labour and DL on the contentious issue of candidate strategy for forthcoming local, European and general elections.

Sources in both parties have confirmed that the name of the merged parties will be the Labour Party because of the traditional loyalty to the Labour movement generally.

The proposal to offer the DL leader, Mr De Rossa, the position of president of the Labour Party has come as something of a surprise, given earlier reports that Mr De Rossa and Mr Brendan Howlin would be joint deputy leaders.

The negotiating teams, headed by Mr Howlin and Mr Eamon Gilmore, have yet to reach final agreement on the Dail constituencies which will be running candidates from both parties at the next election. It is being proposed that Labour and DL would nominate candidates in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin South Central, Dublin South West, Wicklow, Cork East and Kildare North.

Sources maintain that the strategy for Dublin North West, Mr De Rossa's own constituency where Ms Roisin Shortall has already been nominated to run as the Labour candidate in the next election, has not been concluded. This is causing some speculation that Mr De Rossa may contest the European elections next year.

If the merger document is concluded by November 19th, as planned, it is intended to put it before Labour's general council on November 26th. The merger would have to be ratified by special delegate conferences of both parties in early December. It is understood that DL has pencilled in the date of December 12th for its meeting.