The Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, will today give members of his parliamentary party "the correct version of events" surrounding an Irish Independent opinion poll conducted last November.
The poll, published four days before Labour's leadership election, found that 52 per cent of the public supported Mr Quinn; 30 per cent favoured Mr Brendan Howlin; and 18 per cent were undecided. It was part of a comprehensive survey of support for the various parties.
Supporters of Mr Howlin believe the opinion poll influenced the result of the election within the party's general council, which Mr Quinn eventually won by 37 votes to Mr Howlin's 27.
They were particularly incensed because six months earlier the Irish Independent had advised the electorate in a front-page editorial that it was "payback time" and to vote for a change from the government which included Labour. The Labour Party lost half of its Dail seats in that general election.
Mr Quinn's decision to speak to members of his parliamentary party on the issue today - after months of offering "no comment" to press queries - is understood to have been prompted by information that tomorrow's issue of Magill would deal with the matter.
Questions submitted to Mr Quinn by the editor of Magill, Mr Vincent Browne, are understood to have generated a threat of litigation if certain allegations were published.
Sources close to Mr Quinn confirmed yesterday that a solicitor's letter had been sent to Mr Browne warning that legal action would be taken if certain "false and untrue" statements were published.
Mr Quinn consistently offered no comment to press queries on whether he knew in advance that the poll was to be conducted and in relation to his contact with executives of Independent Newspapers. Media interest, encouraged by some of Mr Howlin's supporters, was particularly intense last March, at the time of the party's special policy conference.
However, the polling company involved, IMS, and a spokesman for Independent Newspapers denied any ulterior motives for the survey.
Mr Quinn and his brother, Mr Lochlann Quinn, chairman of AIB and deputy chairman of Glen Dimplex, are personal friends of the Independent deputy chairman, Mr John Meagher.
Some hours after becoming leader of the Labour Party, Mr Quinn was joined by Mr Meagher, who is also chairman of Irish Marketing Surveys, and by Mr John Fanning of McConnells Advertising for celebratory drinks in the Dail bar.
Attempts to contact Mr Meagher in his office at IMS were not successful yesterday. But he was quoted two weeks ago in the Sunday Business Post as denying he had any conversations with Mr Quinn before the poll was commissioned and published. It is unlikely the Independent opinion poll had any significant effect on voting intentions within the Labour Party. Mr Quinn, as a former minister for finance, was the clear choice of Dublin members, and once he secured the support of a number of key rural activists he had the eight-day election campaign wrapped up.
But the failure of Mr Howlin to capitalise on the private support he received from the former party leader, Mr Dick Spring, and from his advisers was attributed to interference by the Independent. The poor relationship that existed for years between Mr Spring and Dr Tony O'Reilly of Independent Newspapers added spice to the theory.