A file is to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions following the arrest yesterday of a journalist and a detective sergeant over the leaking of a report into a major miscarriage of justice.
The two were released last night after being questioned about the publication of a Commission of Investigation report into An Garda Síochána's handling of a high profile murder case in 1997.
The commission, under senior counsel George Birmingham, was established to determine how Dean Lyons, a homeless drug addict, "confessed" to and was wrongly charged with the murders of psychiatric patients Sylvia Shiels and Mary Callinan.
They were found stabbed to death in their beds in sheltered accommodation at Grangegorman, Dublin.
The journalist arrested yesterday, Mick McCaffrey, worked for the Evening Herald last year when an article on the commission's report was published, but is now employed by the Sunday Tribune.
His arrest was strongly criticised by the National Union of Journalists. It said the Commission of Investigation probe into the case of Mr Lyons was in no way compromised by the leaking of its report to Mr McCaffrey.
NUJ Irish secretary Séamus Dooley said he found it disturbing that one of only two people "facing jail" in connection with the case was a journalist.
Sunday Tribune editor Noreen Hegarty said it would be a "supreme irony" if it emerged the Garda investigation was begun on the instigation of Minister for Justice Michael McDowell who, she said, had a history of leaking.
A spokeswoman for Mr McDowell said the decision to make yesterday's arrests was entirely a matter for An Garda Síochána in which the Minister played "absolutely no part".
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors did not comment on the arrest of its member.
Extensive details of the commission's draft report appeared in the Evening Herald last August. At that point the draft report had not been published.
The Department of Justice immediately issued a statement saying it was an offence for anybody to disclose the contents of a commission's draft report before its official publication.
A Garda investigation into the apparent leak was begun immediately.
A Dublin-based detective sergeant believed to be the source of the contentious story was also arrested yesterday. He was taken to Blackrock Garda station.
