The contacts are understood to have been between senior figures from the parties who were acting with the knowledge of the respective leaders. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has repeatedly refused to answer a question as to whether such talks took place.

His spokesman would only say, "Enda Kenny has no knowledge of any official meeting".

When pressed that the meetings were not necessarily classed official, but took place with the leader's knowledge, his spokesman refused to comment further.

Mary Harney's spokesman also refused to say whether the PD leader knew of such talks but refused to emphatically state that no contacts took place on behalf of the party with Harney's knowledge. Senior PD member Liz O'Donnell was equally equivocal. "I don't remember anything specific in terms of negotiations going on at the time with Fine Gael, " she said. None of the senior members contacted by the Sunday Tribune confirmed the story.

According to the source, the talks took place in the latter half of 2002. If agreement was reached on a merger, Harney and Kenny would approach Bertie Ahern and request a representation at cabinet that corresponded to the new party's strength of 39 seats. In the likely event that Ahern would reject such a request, the new party would go into opposition and allow Ahern to form a new government with the support of independents.

The Sunday Tribune understands that one of the reasons the talks ultimately failed was the inability to reach agreement on the name of the new party. At least one of those privy to the talks on the Progressive Democrat side insisted that 'Fine Gael' not be included in the new name.

The 2002 general election was a resounding success for the Progressive Democrats, returning eight TDs, only two of which were incumbents.

One of their key electoral strategies had been to appeal to voters that Fianna Fail couldn't be trusted to govern alone.

For Fine Gael, the election was a disaster, losing 23 of its 54 seats. A merger would have made perfect sense to both parties. The PDs had flirted with disaster at every election since the early '90s but in 2002 was in a position of strength.

For Fine Gael, the months after that general election were full of predictions that the party was finished. When Enda Kenny was elected leader, he pledged to electrify the party.