Fine Gael has urged the Government to establish an independent inquiry, chaired by a foreign judge, into the early release of Philip Sheedy.
The party's justice spokesman, Mr Alan Shatter, said it was very important that "closure" was brought to the issue. This could not take place until the full story was known.
His party is to use private members' time in the Dail next week to call on the Government to enact legislation to establish the inquiry, and to give it the power to compel witnesses as well as to hear evidence from anyone it deems appropriate.
"We want to provide a mechanism to ensure the outstanding questions arising out of the Sheedy affair can be answered." He said the inquiry could be similar to that of the Judge Donnchadh O Buachalla inquiry, which examined the district justice's transfer of a pub licence for Jack White's Inn.
Fine Gael has given a commitment that it would hold such an inquiry if in government. Mr Shatter said it could be a three-member inquiry panel, and he would expect that "from start to finish" it could take around three months.
He said that appointing people from outside the State was not a reflection on members of the Irish judiciary, but it would put them in an invidious position to ask them to conduct such an inquiry.
He said the motion would be a challenge to the PDs and a litmus test of the lessons learned by the Government following the controversy over Mr Hugh O'Flaherty.
A PD spokesman said the Government would consider the private members' motion, as it always does at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
The motion notes the report of the then chief justice, Mr Liam Hamilton, and his acknowledgment that it was not possible for him, on the basis of written statements and individual interviews, to "resolve disputed questions of fact, and to do so would necessitate an inquiry of a nature different from that instituted by him".
"This goes back to that first inquiry when the chief justice acknowledged the contradictory statements and comments made to him by some of the people he interviewed," said Mr Shatter.
"He could not resolve a number of questions which are in dispute but he found it possible to draw some conclusions." He added that Mr Hamilton had done an extraordinarily good job within the confines of the procedures available to him.
As far as Fine Gael was concerned, he said, the Sheedy affair had damaged the administration of justice. The party made a distinction between judges exercising their judicial function and allegations of judicial misconduct. They acknowledged the importance of the separation of powers but did not believe members of the judiciary could be immune from answering questions where allegations of misconduct were made.