The Government yesterday agreed the outline of draft legislation which will incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights into Irish law.
The legislation will be published by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, in the first week of October. The Government is to ask the Opposition to support the Bill to ensure it will be enacted by the end of next month.
The move arises from the Belfast Agreement, where the Government undertook to examine the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The agreement states that the measures brought forward by the Government would ensure "at least an equivalent level of protection of human rights as will pertain in Northern Ireland".
It is understood that the legislation will allow for an "interpretative incorporation" of the convention and not direct incorporation.
At present, the European Court of Human Rights, which applies the convention, allows states to interpret the convention according to their own political and legal cultures.
An interpretative incorporation would ensure that discretion would not be taken away from parliament and put in the hands of the judiciary.
The convention becomes part of British law on October 2nd.