The Minister for Justice is planning a series of meetings with the judiciary between now and the summer to discuss a range of issues, The Irish Times has learned.
They include finalising the Judicial Council Bill, the question of sentencing guidelines, and the allocation of senior judges to the Court of Criminal Appeal on a permanent or semi-permanent basis.
The Judicial Council Bill, which will deal with the issue of disciplining judges, as well as other matters, has existed in draft form for almost a year.
However, it has been delayed due to the pending Oireachtas inquiry into the behaviour of Judge Brian Curtin, and his court challenges to it, which ended with the Supreme Court's rejection of his challenge just over a week ago.
The contents of the Judicial Council Bill were discussed with Chief Justice John Murray in September of last year.
The Attorney General and the Minister are now reviewing the Bill in the light of the High Court and Supreme Court judgments on the Curtin case.
While it draws heavily on a report from the former chief justice, Mr Justice Keane, published almost five years ago, it departs from it in providing for greater lay participation in the disciplinary process than envisaged by his report.
It also gives less weight than he did to the need for more education and training for judges, and for a judicial council to have a representative role for the judiciary, similar to what the Bar Council does for barristers.
Mr McDowell will also discuss the issue of sentencing with the judges, raising concerns about lack of consistency and a perceived leniency in certain cases.
There are no sentencing guidelines in existence for judges at the moment, but a committee established a year ago by the Courts Service, made up of the Chief Justice and the presidents of the three jurisdictions, along with sentencing expert Tom O'Malley, has been asked to compile statistics on sentencing.
A spokesman for the Minister said yesterday he welcomed the setting up of this committee.