News of Tom Parlon's exit from politics has been followed this weekend with confirmation that the party's high profile Dublin City Council member, Wendy Hederman, is to resign her council seat. Hederman was seen as a successor to Michael McDowell as a Dail candidate in Dublin South East. She said her decision had not been influenced by the party's poor general election performance. "I made the decision last November and spoke to various party members. Michael McDowell asked me to stay until after the general election, " she said yesterday. The PDs in Dublin South East will select a replacement later this month for Hederman, who will remain a PD member. "There is a role for a party like the PDs. But there is a considerable job to be done to refocus and rebrand our message so that it strikes a chord with the electorate, " she said.

Former party candidates met in Portlaoise yesterday to assess the leadership situation and start the planning process towards the European and local elections in 2009. There is some frustration in party ranks that the Dardis commission will report only in September, and the departure of Parlon seems to have led to renewed determination to convince Harney to remain as leader. Several senior PD figures said the recruitment of a high-profile national organiser in the mode of Pat Cox . . . who was PD general secretary in the 1980s . . . was an organisational model that could be repeated.

Last week, the only declared candidate for the party leadership, outgoing Senator Tom Morrissey, wrote to all 3,900 individuals on the PD membership database asking them to participate in the debate about the party's future direction. "I know among many people I have spoke to that there is a disappointment that there might be the demise of the PDs, " Morrissey said.

Morrissey has stressed the importance of an election to pick the party's new leader but he is unlikely to object if Harney opts to remain as leader in the short to medium term. This weekend outgoing Senator Colm O'Gorman, who said he would strongly consider contesting a leadership election, admitted that all options . . . including a leader from outside the parliamentary party . . . were being considered. The five outgoing PD Senators and the party's two TDs are due to meet on Tuesday for their first parliamentary party meeting since the general election. The selection of two PD members as Taoiseach's nominees to the new Seanad is expected to be discussed.