The Oireachtas inquiry into the conduct of Circuit Court judge Mr Brian Curtin will be able to set down its rules and procedures.
The Government will not set down rules governing the inquiry, which will be able to hire its own lawyers and decide on the way it wishes to go forward.
The final size of the committee has not been established, though it will have between seven and nine members. "There is a desire to keep it small," said one source.
The Attorney General, Mr Rory Brady, yesterday briefed Fine Gael TD Mr Jim O'Keeffe and the Labour Party's Mr Joe Costello, along with Mr Ciarán Cuffe of the Greens, Mr Aengus Ó Snodaigh of Sinn Féin and Independent TD Mr Finian McGrath.
A motion requesting the Oireachtas to form a special inquiry is "nearly ready", and it is intended that this will be moved in the Dáil on Tuesday.
The inquiry will have to seek "primary" evidence to back up allegations that Mr Curtin downloaded child pornography and used his credit card to pay for it.
This will include evidence from the investigating officers, his credit card company, telephone records, and his Internet service provider.
Last night a US police detective who helped to destroy an Internet child pornography syndicate said he would give evidence to a Dáil inquiry, if asked.
"It would be up to my department, but I don't see any problem.
"It has been done in the past," Dallas-based detective Steve Nelson told The Irish Times.
Dallas police and federal agents raided Landslide Productions in September 1999, getting 350,000 names and credit card details.
Information about possible Irish customers was passed on to the gardaí, who then raided a number of homes in Operation Amethyst.
However, Det Nelson stressed that his evidence would be of limited value since it was subsequently supported by a paper trail conducted by the Garda.
"I would be more comfortable if it was backed up by information to verify everything," said Det Nelson, who briefed Garda detectives before Operation Amethyst began.
US intelligence identifying 7,000 possible criminals given to British police has so far resulted in 4,500 search warrants and 1,700 prosecutions, he said.
Despite the Government's desire for an in camera investigation, Judge Curtin cannot be stopped from demanding that it be held in public.
"In practice, he might be happy to have it in private, but he could demand that it be held in public because justice is supposed to be done in public," said one TD last night.
