The Minister for Justice will shortly bring a proposal before Cabinet on the case of a Garda superintendent dismissed in 1928 for allegedly accepting a £100 bribe from the IRA, a Department spokesman confirmed yesterday.
The Minister, Mr O'Donoghue, said he was considering two submissions made on behalf of 100-year-old Mr William Geary.
These submissions by family members were sent shortly after part of Mr Geary's evidence file was released to him in New York City.
The family's proposal that Mr Geary's dismissal be overturned has received cross-party support in both the Seanad and Dail.
Yesterday the Fine Gael spokesman on justice, Mr Jim Higgins, asked the Minister to re-examine the circumstances of Mr Geary's dismissal. "I think at this late stage we really owe him an apology," Mr Higgins said.
The Fianna Fail TD for Dublin South West, Mr Conor Lenihan, yesterday welcomed reassessment of Mr Geary's case, but said he believed the Minister was taking the matter to Cabinet because he was not receiving support from within his own Department.
"There is, not unnaturally, huge sensitivity within the Department of Justice . . . I feel that the Minister, in order to get a very clear decision on this, is seeking Cabinet approval for any step he will take," said Mr Lenihan.
He hoped the Minister would propose Mr Geary's exoneration in a few weeks.