IT'S "keep the head down" time at the Department of Justice this weekend. Two investigators - a former civil servant and a management consultant - are drawing up their report on the shambles which led to 16 republican prisoners being released and rearrested, and a confidence vote in the Minister for Justice.

All week the two men have been ensconced in the Department headquarters, trying to unravel the sequence of events and discover who is most to blame.

It is not an easy task for Sean Cromien, former secretary of the Department of Finance, and Dr Edmund Molloy, a management consultant. They have set up shop in the training room on the second floor at the back of the building. With them has been David Ring, who is considered a type of troubleshooter brought in to help set up new procedures in Departments where problems are identified. Ring has been acting as secretary to the inquiry.

In all, the three had seen about 15 people by last night. Of these, only a handful are central to the investigation. The remainder had small roles involving seeing or filing letters, and they have been called only to confirm their minor involvement with the documents.

There is nothing more miserable than a civil servant who feels accused of being incompetent or even of being disorganised, and a sombre mood has prevailed throughout the Justice building this week as, one by one, Cromien and Molloy called in their witnesses.

At least some of those questioned have been impressed by the manner of the inquiry. Each civil servant was told first to submit a statement explaining their role in the critical chain of events which led to the failure to formally remove Judge Dominic Lynch from the Special Criminal Court.

The civil servants were also allowed to bring a union representative along to their meeting with the inquiry, a measure which has given them some moral support.

The questioning has not been too tough, however, and one witness thought it "more like a chat". The inquiry has focused on what one observer described as "the old fashioned Civil Service conviction that there must be a paper trail and that everything that happened to a letter or document must be marked somewhere in the file".

Cromien and Molloy have not given any indication of where their opinions lie as the inquiry has progressed.

However, there is a growing feeling in the Department that two of its civil servants will be singled out for particular criticism, for the initial failure to inform Judge Lynch that he could come off the bench, and for the delays in responding to letters from the judge and promptings from the Attorney General and others.

The inquiry will centre on why letters sent down from the Minister's office for processing for the courts section do not seem to have emerged from it, and whether the Minister's office should have "chased" a response.

Those deemed most at fault face demotion, and the prospect of never achieving promotion again. At least one of those questioned has argued that a superior was away for the crucial period, and this coupled with a large workload slowed the normal procedures.

The Cromien report is likely to couch its judgments in reasoned tones and to surround them with a series of recommendations on the practices and procedures followed in the Department.

The inquiry is expected to make a last check with witnesses and their union representatives on Monday before reporting to the Minister. She will have little time to assess the report. She faces bringing it to Cabinet on Tuesday morning and then answering questions in the Dail that afternoon.

Within the Department there was much concern about whether people named in the Cromien report as having had some critical role in the debacle will also be named by the Minister. Last night's statement by the Association of Higher Civil Servants, disowning an earlier one from the union which was prompted by members in the Department of Justice, will add to the sense of isolation among the officials at the centre of the inquiry.