The Government has postponed taking any further decisions on disciplinary action against Judge Brian Curtin until after he replies to a demand for full information about his conduct, writes Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent.
The Tralee-based judge, who has not tried a case since he was charged with possession of child pornography over two years ago, is expected to fight any attempt to impeach him.
In a letter to his solicitor, Mr Richard Pierse, yesterday, the Government extended its deadline for Judge Curtin to reply to its demand for information until May 18th.
"People are conscious of the fact that they have to be seen to be acting both fairly and proportionally. So this will be done on a step-by-step basis," one senior Government figure told The Irish Times.
The Garda Commissioner, Mr Noel Conroy, and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr James Hamilton, both provided reports for the Cabinet offering extra information on their handling of the case.
However, it is not clear if Mr Hamilton was able to explain why a prosecution was taken against the judge given that the search warrant was used one day after it expired.
In the Dáil yesterday, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said the Attorney General, Mr Rory Brady had advised that action could be taken against Judge Curtin under the Constitution.
"My advice at this stage is that it does not cause a constitutional difficulty because the problem is how to make the mechanism work. This was tried in 2001, and some of those areas have to be revisited. The constitutional right of this House to deal with a member of the judiciary by impeachment is already in place," he said.
Though the Dáil has constitutional freedom to act against the judge, Dáil Éireann does not have any rules in place to govern the conduct of an impeachment hearing.
"It doesn't have procedures. And there won't be for the moment. Nothing will be done to pre-empt the letter from the judge," a Government source told The Irish Times.
The judge, who discussed his case with senior counsel in Dublin late last week, is expected to defend himself against charges that he should be removed from the bench.