The Fianna Fáil leadership is confident of winning Friday's national executive vote to expel Ms Beverley Flynn from the party after their TDs, senators and MEPs agreed last night to eject her from the parliamentary party. Mark Brennock and Mark Hennessy report.
Meanwhile the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, offered signals to the parliamentary party that other Fianna Fáil figures, including the Limerick West TD, Mr Michael Collins, will be expelled from the party.
Supporters of Ms Flynn said last night they would continue to lobby many of the 95 national executive members in advance of Friday's meeting in Leinster House.
However, senior party sources said that while Ms Flynn would have some support on the national executive, they believed it would be impossible for her to win the support of more than one third of the members in order to block her expulsion. A two thirds majority is needed to expel her.
Complaining strongly about the lack of unity in the parliamentary party, Ms Flynn told yesterday's meeting that "the Fianna Fáil of 20, 30 years ago" would have backed her in her RTÉ libel action.
"She said a few people had called her pretty frequently, but that nobody had ever come to the court to give her any support," one source told The Irish Times.
In particular, Ms Flynn compared her support with the "strong support" given by Sinn Féin to the "Colombia Three" during their time in jail.
In a clear criticism of Mr Ahern, she said she had frequently come into meetings of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party to find "it acting like 75 independents".
Ms Flynn, who is set to become the first senior figure since Mr Desmond O'Malley to be expelled from the party for "conduct unbecoming", said last night she was looking forward to having her say on Friday.
Last night's meeting took little more than an hour to agree unanimously, without a formal vote, to remove the party whip from Ms Flynn in the wake of her failed libel action against RTÉ.
There were just two speakers on the motion: the Taoiseach, who spoke for 10 minutes outlining his reasons for wanting her ejected, and Ms Flynn, who took over 30 minutes to present her case that she was being singled out.
In his speech the Taoiseach emphasised the High Court jury's decision that she "assisted and encouraged others to evade tax" during her time working for National Irish Bank.
He pointed to the statement from the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Ronan Keane, in the Supreme Court that Ms Flynn had "no reputation deserving of legal protection".
Acknowledging that it was "a sad day", Mr Ahern said the expulsion motion against Ms Flynn, who had been afforded due process, was the "acid test" of the credibility of standards in public life.
One TD said afterwards: "The Taoiseach was sending out a clear signal to the national executive that he is not to be challenged on Friday night. He went for her knees.
"It was the biggest hatchet job that I have seen him do for a while. He was going to take her out, and that was it."
Following her defence, Mr Ahern unexpectedly spoke again before the expulsion motion was moved to insist that he harboured no personal animosities towards Ms Flynn, or her father, the former minister and EU commissioner, Mr Pádraig Flynn.
In her lengthy contribution, Ms Flynn gave a detailed account of her NIB employment, during which, she said, she had sold investment products in good faith as instructed by her bosses.
She said she believed that she was paying a disproportionately high price compared to other transgressors within Fianna Fáil, who had not been expelled from the party entirely.
She said that when she was expelled from the parliamentary party in 2001 after the High Court verdict, no move had been made to expel her from the party, and asked why such a move had been instigated now.