The possible impeachment of Judge Brian Curtin was a "live" issue and "is a not improbable consequence", the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, has said.
The Minister and the Garda Commissioner, Mr Noel Conroy, have both defended the gardaí who carried out the search of Judge Curtin's home under an expired search warrant.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Garda Representative Association, both said there was no evidence to suggest any impropriety on the part of the gardaí or those who prosecuted the child porn case against the judge.
Mr McDowell said he had outlined to the Cabinet yesterday the facts surrounding the Curtin case, while the Attorney General, Mr Rory Brady, had given Ministers a legal briefing.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr James Hamilton, had agreed to furnish a report to Cabinet on the case. Mr Conroy had already submitted a preliminary report of Garda involvement, with a more comprehensive report to follow.
Mr Dermot McCarthy, secretary to the Cabinet, had been asked to write to Judge Curtin inviting him to comment on the prosecution's case.
"He has been asked to do that so the Government can decide in its own way what appropriate action it should take, whether at Oireachtas level or at another level," Mr McDowell said.
Impeachment was one option being considered by the Government. While he did not want to pre-empt the outcome of Cabinet talks on the matter next week, impeachment "is a not improbable consequence".
On the execution of the warrant, Mr McDowell said: "As I understand it, the members of An Garda Síochána who had the warrant with them on the day in question believed a seven-day warrant was calculated as a series of 24-hour periods. They were actually contemplating getting a new warrant if nobody turned up to open the premises."
The first day of a seven-day warrant expires on midnight of the day it is granted. That means while it is technically valid for a seven day period it is not valid for seven full 24-hour periods.
Of the report furnished to him by Mr Conroy he said he had "seen nothing to suggest impropriety on the part of the prosecution or on the part of gardaí that carried out the investigation".
Mr Conroy said the gardaí carried out the search "thinking they were operating under a legitimate warrant".