With the Government under intense pressure to introduce measures to restore public confidence in the judicial system in the wake of the Sheedy case, a package of proposals on court procedures is expected to be cleared by the Cabinet today.
The imperative for reform stems partly from the disquiet provoked by the Sheedy controversy and partly from the sixth and final report of the Working Group on the Courts Commission, chaired by Ms Justice Susan Denham of the Supreme Court.
However, because of the questions raised by the odd listing procedures adopted in the Sheedy case, the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, is expected to place this among the key issues at the centre of his proposals for change.
Charting his proposals for reform at Cabinet, the Minister is expected to suggest that senior judicial figures be asked to devise urgently criteria for a more open and clear listing of Circuit Court criminal cases.
According to Government sources, there is serious concern that "various ad-hoc practices have sprung up in relation to listing of cases" and "responsibility for this function must be tied down very, very firmly".
The procedure for listing criminal cases in the Dublin Circuit Court moved centre-stage in the Sheedy affair after it emerged that Mr Justice Hugh O'Flaherty had contacted the County Registrar, Mr Michael Quinlan, inquiring about how the case might be reentered for hearing.
According to sources, Mr Quinlan was an efficient Court Registrar and was a solicitor in private practice until he was appointed to his present role by the Government.
The Supreme Court judge's intervention sparked off a series of events whereby Mr Quinlan contacted the solicitor for Sheedy, Mr Michael Staines, in October 1998. According to the solicitor, the County Registrar asked when he planned to apply for a review of his client's sentence.
In his account to the President of the Circuit Court, Mr Justice Esmond Smyth, Mr Quinlan said he advised Mr Staines that he could make an application before a judge who might or might not be willing to deal with the hearing. He recommended that the application should be made before the judge in Court 24 - "who happened to be Judge (Cyril) Kelly".
He later advised the Circuit Criminal Office that the file should be made available in this court on the date sought by Mr Staines - November 12th. Mr Justice Kelly suspended the balance of Sheedy's four-year sentence on that date.
As County Registrar for the Dublin Circuit Court, Mr Quinlan is at the centre of a separate report, by the Department of Justice, into the role of officials in the Sheedy case, including the way in which listing was dealt with.
Meanwhile, another key element of Mr O'Donoghue's proposals will involve alterations in the principle of primus inter pares - first among equals - which relates to judges.
Because the Sheedy case also highlighted the absence of a disciplinary procedure among judges, sources yesterday predicted that the Minister would outline a system whereby the president of each court could exercise a disciplinary function if necessary. It emerged last week that the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Liam Hamilton, had no authority to discipline colleagues.
However, there are fears that the establishment of a disciplinary system for judges may be fraught with difficulty. Sources yesterday suggested that changes might involve a constitutional referendum.
Ms Justice Denham's report acknowledges that, in line with the Constitution, judges must retain their independence from every other State institution.