Within hours, everybody at all levels of the party was agreeing it was a great idea. But it's impossible to avoid the impression that Fianna Fail, like its coalition partners, is currently enduring a particularly bad dose of the political collywobbles.

The cause of this ailment is obvious . . .dire private and published opinion polls . . . but the cure is much more tricky to prescribe. And it is clear from recent developments that many Fianna Fail TDs do not believe the upcoming summer break, and a much needed spot of R&R, will provide much relief.

As things stand, as many as 20 Fianna Fail seats look vulnerable unless the government can emerge from the opinion poll slump that has afflicted it for close to four years, and it seems many in the party are determined to demand a say in dictating their own electoral destiny. The days of being a "half-tolerated inconvenience" . . .

to use the phrase that was dominating the public airwaves late last week . . . had to end.

Backbenchers were at pains to stress there was no question of the committee being an effort to undermine the leadership. There had simply been a "certain disconnection" between some government ministers and the backbenches and this move was designed to close that gap.

There was no question of dissent and there was "nothing negative" about the group, they said unanimously, adding that, if there had been, nobody would have signed up in the first place. "The whole thing has been blown out of proportion, " one backbencher said. "It's way, way less dramatic than it is being portrayed."

Bertie 'I'm listening' Ahern, and the party leadership were singing off the same hymn sheet. Ahern quickly moved to welcome the initiative, insisting he wanted to see TDs and senators having the fullest possible input into party policy. He agreed in principle to the plan to set up a committee and offered a meeting this week with a number of those behind the proposal to discuss how such a forum could work in practice.

But, significantly, he asked that, in return, plans to email other TDs with the letter . . . inviting them to a meeting on Tuesday to discuss setting up the new committee . . . would be abandoned.

The motivation for this request was obvious: the party leadership must have been concerned that Tuesday's meeting might be perceived as some form of revolt, even if there was no intention on the part of those involved in portraying it as such. Sixteen names on the letter was more than enough for the leadership, thank you.

While rebellion was certainly not on their minds, most observers believe the move to establish the committee reflects both anxiety at the party's performance in the opinion polls and frustration at the failure of parliamentary party meetings to serve as a forum for their views and give them a real input into party policy.

The inescapable reality is that they were not clamouring for an input into party policy this time five years ago when Fianna Fail was riding high in the opinion polls and Fine Gael were crashing its way from one disaster to the next. "We'd be fools not to take account of the opinion polls, " one TD admitted last week.

The impact of the statutory rape fiasco is also still being felt. Backbenchers watched on with horror as the government in general, and their bete noire Michael McDowell in particular, seemed to struggle to grasp the enormity of what was about to unfold.

"Fellas do feel let down in certain areas. There's a lot of concern about the PDs and the influence and role they have in government, " a backbencher commented.

What may also be telling is the calibre of the people who had signed up for the group by Friday. Jimmy Devins, Pat Carey, Barry Andrews, John McGuinness, Noel O'Flynn, Jim Glennon and Cecilia Keaveney - to name but a few - are nobody's fools. They would be spoken of as ministers-in-waiting. And at least some of them merited being called to higher office by this point.

Backbenchers insisted that this was not a factor in the setting-up of the committee and there is no reason to doubt them.

But backbencher frustration levels at their situation can only have been heightened by the determined resistance of the Taoiseach to shuffling his ministers and promoting from their ranks . . . the disastrous reshuffle of last January being only the most recent example.

That sense of frustration should be eased when the committee is up and running and backbenchers feel that they are at least being listened to. But the only thing that will stop the collywobbles returning is a few successive decent opinion polls for the government. And, irrespective of what committee is established, that is primarily the responsibility for the 15 men and women sitting around the cabinet table.