The Government has agreed to establish a commission of investigation, under the chairmanship of George Birmingham SC, into the Dean Lyons affair.
It has also agreed to establish an expert group on matters relating to Garda training and procedures for dealing with vulnerable witnesses.
This follows a report by Shane Murphy SC on how Mr Lyons, a homeless drug addict, came to confess to the murders of Mary Callinan and Sylvia Shiels in their home at Grangegorman psychiatric hospital in March 1997. He was charged in July 1997.
In August another man, Mark Nash, confessed to the murders. He was being questioned at the time about the killing of a Roscommon couple, for which he is serving life imprisonment. He later withdrew his confession to the Grangegorman murders and has never been charged.
Seven months after his confession the charges against Mr Lyons were dropped. He has since died in England.
The commission will be independent, with full statutory powers to investigate and take sworn evidence. It will not be in public.
Mr Murphy was asked earlier this year to review the Garda papers and make a report. However, he did not have the power to examine people on oath, or to make findings. He recommended a commission of investigation and an examination of Garda procedures on assessing the fitness of witnesses to be interviewed.
The terms of reference of the commission are: to examine the circumstances arising from the making of the confession by Dean Lyons; the adequacy of the Garda assessment of the reliability of his confession, both before and after he was charged with murder; and the adequacy of the information provided by the Garda Síochána to the DPP on the morning of July 27th, 1997.
The expert group will look more generally at Garda protocols regarding vulnerable witnesses in the light of the confession made by Mr Lyons, and will report to the Minister. It will also examine the practicality, desirability and resource implications of introducing arrangements to have potentially vulnerable witnesses professionally assessed concerning their fitness to be interviewed.
The issues to be addressed by the expert group include the adequacy of Garda training, protocols, regulations and procedures in July 1997 and now; the assessment of the fitness of persons to be interviewed; the avoidance of the use of leading questions with vulnerable suspects; ensuring that the use or denial of medication or drugs does not adversely the person's ability to be questioned; the question of forwarding any reservations of any individual member of a Garda investigation team to the DPP; the issue of corroborating admissions prior to charging a person; and the recording of issues raised at case conferences relating to the investigation of serious crime.
While both the commission and the expert group will conduct their investigations and deliberations in private, both their reports will be published.