Paul Mackay, a central figure in the PDs' 21-year history as party trustee and joint honorary treasurer, has also claimed party rules were broken last week when Harney led the party back into government because it was without the prior approval of the PD general council. He plans to raise this issue at Thursday's meeting of the PD national executive.

On Tuesday, the day after he wrote to Harney, Mackay attached extracts of that letter to a correspondence he sent to general council members. He told the members that, under the party's current constitution, they would have to be informed of any coalition deal "and endorse same or otherwise."

The extracts show Mackay warning Harney that the PDs are identified as "too close to FF" and that the recent election results are proof this has not worked to the advantage of the party. "In supporting FF now [in the vote for Taoiseach] our party would be seen as just making up the numbers; the hind quarter of a tired and troubled organisation, " he wrote.

The man who sat alongside Harney, Des O'Malley and Michael McDowell at the top table on the day the PDs were launched in December 1985 pointedly wrote that "a number of current and former FF office holders, including its present leader Bertie Ahern, are under investigation by a number of sitting tribunals with regard to financial and planning matters. In digesting the statement of Mr Des O'Neill SC of the Mahon Tribunal on 28th May, 2007, one is amazed to learn of the level of obfuscation, obstruction by Bertie Ahern and others in supplying documentation and evidence to the tribunal personnel."

And he added that "FF, unfortunately, has not yet rid itself of the image nor of certain individuals who were acolytes supporting and colluding with Haughey, its former crooked leader."

He further told Harney that if the party enters government in "its present weakened stage" it would "take the focus off the real job on hand which is to re-construct, re-organise and reestablish our party."

Noting the 30th Dail may not last five years, he suggested the PDs, "possibly reinvigorated" could "offer itself in support of an alternative government should a FF-led government fail to run its full term."

He concluded by saying that the PDs had "lent respectability, credibility and integrity" to FF over the past 10 years.

"The time has now come for our party to move on and particularly so in view of the potential revelations and findings of the tribunals, coming down the tracks."

TheSunday Tribune has also learned Harney sent a tersely worded reply to Mackay's home this weekend expressing surprise at his views "and the tone in which they were expressed". In the letter, which was also copied to general council members, Harney wrote that she did not recall Mackay expressing those views in the run-up to, or during, the general election campaign.

Noting that the same argument could have been made at any time during the three previous FF-PD coalitions, she added that if Mackay did feel that strongly, it was "open to you at any time since 1989 to resign your position as a trustee of the party but you did not". She pointedly noted that Mackay was "also prepared to accept government appointments to state boards" which could only entail that he had no fundamental objection to the party's coalition with Bertie Ahern and Fianna Fail.

"Prior to and during the general election, in your capacity as trustee, you attended party fundraising events in which I [Harney] took part and where the clear message to those whose financial support we sought was that the return of the then government represented the best way forward for our country and the economy. It was always the case that we were prepared to re-enter government with Fianna Fail subject to agreeing a programme for government and our supporters and the electorate understood this. If you had fundamental reservations about this, those whose financial support you sought deserved to know, " Harney wrote.

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune, Mackay conceded he was in "the minority" in his views on coalition. However other PD sources have said privately there was an expectation there would be "greater consultation" from the leadership before the deal was agreed. Mackay noted the next meeting of the party's 150-strong general council would not take place until 30 June, more than two weeks after the coalition deal was concluded. He said he would not allow his name go forward for reappointment as trustee and honorary treasurer but that was nothing to do with his views on coalition. "It's time to move on [after 21 years], " he said.

He also denied his views were influenced by a preference for McDowell over Harney. "I'm not a McDowell man or a Harney man. I'm a PD man, " he said.

However, party sources indicated that Harney, on her recent return to the leadership, had declined to reappoint the three party trustees.

It is also known that those close to Harney took a dim view of an interview Mackay gave to RTE last September in which he said that Harney had made the right decision to step down because the party had been drifting and needed a change. Party sources also stressed that a week after election day Harney was mandated by the PD national executive to make decisions on whether or not to go into coalition.

NEW Arts minister Seamus Brennan was Bertie Ahern's first choice as Ceann Comhairle, the Sunday Tribune has learned.

However, when the Dublin South TD let it be known that he would strongly resist the move, the Taoiseach turned his attention to a reluctant John O'Donoghue. O'Donoghue's first reaction to Ahern's request was that he was too young and wanted to remain in active politics. His failure to again deliver a second Fianna Fail seat in Kerry South significantly weakened his position, and once it was made clear to him that he faced the prospect of demotion from cabinet he reluctantly accepted the position.