Lawyers for Judge Brian Curtin have written to the Oireachtas committee set up to inquire into his conduct, seeking to arrange the handover of his computer.
It is at present in the possession of the Garda Síochána, but in its judgment last week the Supreme Court ruled it was under the legal control of Judge Curtin, and he could be required to hand it over.
It is understood his lawyers are seeking direction from the committee in relation to the hand-over, and seeking guarantees about the security of the computer, along with continued respect for Judge Curtin's constitutional rights.
The chairman of the committee, Denis O'Donovan TD, has welcomed the correspondence from the judge, and said it will be discussed when the committee convenes early next week.
He said the committee would meet next Tuesday evening, as this was the earliest all its members, along with its legal advisers, could be assembled. One of the legal advisers, senior counsel Kevin Feeney, would have to be replaced as he had just been made a judge of the High Court, he pointed out.
The committee would then proceed immediately to obtain Judge Curtin's computer. An order had been made over a year ago for the production of the computer, before the judge started his High and Supreme Court challenges to the committee's work. That order gave Judge Curtin 21 days to comply, and 19 of them had expired before he took his legal challenge. The order is now reactivated, following the rejection by the Supreme Court of the judge's challenge.
Mr O'Donovan said the committee had already put mechanisms in place to ensure the chain of evidence was preserved, and that the computer was delivered to the clerk of the committee, who would arrange for it to be kept in a secure place.
The next step would be to have it examined by an international expert, he said, and to obtain documentary evidence from the United States.
The judge would have the right to have his own expert also examine the computer, and to ensure that the committee's expert carried out a proper examination, he said.
However, he did not think that this would take longer than five or six weeks.