Labour TD Brendan Howlin expects the Morris tribunal to discover shortly the identity of the person who gave him information alleging Garda misbehaviour in Co Donegal, following yesterday's Supreme Court decision that he is not entitled to keep this confidential.
The court decision took politicians of all parties by surprise yesterday.
The Dáil's Committee on Procedure and Privileges (CPP) is now expected to meet early in the new year to discuss whether it can devise a mechanism to ensure TDs and senators can protect the confidentiality of their dealings with possible "whistleblowers" in the future.
A spokeswoman said the Government would examine the judgment to see if it had implications for it.
Yesterday's unanimous decision of the Supreme Court clears the way for the Morris tribunal to order Eircom to hand over Mr Howlin's telephone records. Because the tribunal already knows on what date the informant contacted Mr Howlin, the Labour TD believes the source will be easily identified from these records, and will confirm his or her identity when contacted.
This will prevent a major confrontation between the Oireachtas and the tribunal over yesterday's decision that Mr Howlin cannot refuse to reveal to the tribunal the identity of a confidential source.
The Supreme Court yesterday overturned an earlier High Court decision that the source of the information enjoyed absolute constitutional protection.
Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte pointed yesterday to the irony whereby the Morris tribunal would not have been set up were it not for the actions of whoever gave the information to Mr Howlin. Yet this person was now to have his or her anonymity taken away.
This saga began in June 2000 when Mr Howlin and his parliamentary colleague, Jim Higgins, received both phone calls and documents claiming that the Carty investigation into alleged Garda corruption in Donegal was compromised by previous dealings between Kevin Carty, Assistant Commissioner Tony Hickey and one of the gardaí under investigation, Det Sgt John White. This was a major contributing factor to the establishment of the Morris tribunal to investigate these matters.
Opposition politicians yesterday expressed serious concern about the Supreme Court decision, which said that, while the Oireachtas and bodies to which it delegated its powers - such as committees - did enjoy privilege, this did not extend to individual TDs and senators.
Giving the lead judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Geoghegan said that in order for the papers to be protected, there would have to be a standing order or rule passed by the Oireachtas or the Dáil's Committee on Procedure and Privileges.
Mr Justice Hardiman said that such protection could be obtained by the CPP passing a specific resolution giving them such protection. It had not done so, and so there was no privilege attached to the information or to Mr Howlin's telephone records.
Lawyers on behalf of Mr Howlin had argued that Article 15 of the Constitution, which refers to the powers of the Houses of the Oireachtas to make their own rules and to protect their own documents and the private papers of their members, meant that the deputy's personal papers were automatically protected.
Lawyers for the tribunal had argued that the privilege he invoked applied to the Oireachtas itself and bodies to which it delegated its powers, specifically the Committee of Procedure and Privileges. They did not attach to deputies and senators as individuals. The court upheld the latter argument.
Mr Rabbitte immediately called for an early meeting of the CPP to seek to devise a way to ensure TDs can protect the confidentiality of their dealings with the public.