The director of the One in Four organisation Colm O'Gorman is expected to announce today that he will seek to run for the Progressive Democrats in the Wexford constituency in the next general election.
The candidature of Mr O'Gorman, the highest profile campaigner in the State on the issue of clerical sex abuse in recent years, will be seen as a significant coup for the PDs. Other political parties are understood to have expressed interest in Mr O'Gorman running as a candidate for them in the past.
A PD spokesman would not confirm or deny last night that an announcement would be made today.
But it is understood that it will be made at a press conference today.
The PD spokesman pointed to recent statements from Mary Harney that she was confident of attracting high profile candidates before the general election, expected next year.
Mr O'Gorman is a native of Wexford and the abuse which he initially highlighted took place in the diocese of Ferns, which coincides largely with the Wexford Dáil constituency.
He was abused by the late Fr Sean Fortune, who was revealed as a serial abuser of children in the diocese and elsewhere. He was a central figure in the BBC documentary Suing the Pope, which ultimately led to the resignation of the Bishop of Fems, Dr Brendan Comiskey, over his handling of the allegations.
Despite his high profile, Mr O'Gorman will face a major challenge to win a seat in the five-seat Wexford constituency. The Progressive Democrats have not contested the constituency since 1989, when they received just 1.17 per cent of the vote there. In the party's first election in 1987 it won 5 per cent of the vote in Wexford.
Some 16.5 per cent of the vote would be required, after transfers, to ensure election in the five-seat constituency.
Fianna Fáil currently holds two seats there, Fine Gael hold two and Labour one.
Mr O'Gorman addressed the Progressive Democrats conference in Limerick last weekend as a guest speaker.
In her address to the conference on Saturday night, Ms Harney praised the courage of Colm O'Gorman for his role in revealing the truth in relation to clerical sex abuse.