Government Ministers are expected to give detailed consideration to the behaviour of the judges at the centre of the Sheedy drunk driving case controversy at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The Chief Justice, Mr Hamilton, is expected to complete his report into the handling of the Sheedy case before the Cabinet meeting. Last Friday he said he was producing the report on the basis that it would be published.
Opposition politicians yesterday insisted that there were serious questions to be answered concerning the handling of the case. Fine Gael's justice spokesman, Mr Jim Higgins, dismissed the account published yesterday as "one-sided".
Reliable sources have confirmed that a report published in yesterday's Sunday Times of Mr Justice O'Flaherty's statement to the Chief Justice is an accurate account of the judge's version of events. According to the report the judge met a friend of Kevin Sheedy, a neighbour's son Mr Ken Anderson, by chance on More hampton Road, Donnybrook in late October 1998.
Mr Anderson introduced a woman he said was a sister of Sheedy, the 32-year-old Dublin architect sentenced to four years' imprisonment after conviction for a drunk driving offence in which a woman, Mrs Anne Ryan, was killed in 1996.
Mr Anderson told the judge that Sheedy was in a vulnerable state and his family believed he had been treated harshly. According to the judge, he told Mr Anderson that Sheedy should contact his legal advisers because it might be possible for Sheedy to go back to the Circuit Court and apply for a review of the sentence. Mr Justice O'Flaherty said he was uncertain how the procedures of the circuit criminal court would apply, but that a recent judgement (DPP vs McDonagh) might help them.
Some days later, according to the report, Mr Justice O'Flaherty contacted Mr Michael Quinlan, the Dublin County registrar for the Circuit Court. He asked him about the circumstances in which sentenced prisoners could apply to have their sentences reviewed. According to the judge Mr Quinlan confirmed that this option was sometimes available and asked the judge the reason for his inquiry. Mr Justice O'Flaherty then mentioned the Sheedy case, it says.
The judge then gave a copy of the judgment in the McDonagh case to Mr Quinlan, and had no further involvement in the matter, the report says.
Opposition spokesmen were unimpressed by this account, with Mr Higgins saying the Sunday Times report was "a one-sided presentation of events". He welcomed the Chief Justice's commitment that his report would be published. However, he called for the publication also of two reports which contributed to the Chief Justice's report: that conducted by the Circuit Court President, Mr Justice Smyth, and by the High Court President, Mr Justice Morris.
Labour's justice spokesman and deputy leader, Mr Brendan Howlin, said he believed there were questions to be answered in connection with Mr Justice O'Flaherty's account of events as published yesterday. "The basic premise is that justice is impartial, that there is no interference whatsoever and that every case is treated in an identical fashion.
"That wouldn't seem to have been the case here. The question about the impartial delivery of justice still has to be answered."
In a statement Mr Howlin criticised "selective reporting of aspects of this affair". He said the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality and Women's Rights would meet again tomorrow, and he called on the Minister for Justice to address the issues raised by the Sheedy case at that meeting.