Independent legal counsel is to be appointed by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to examine the Garda papers on the Grangegorman murders.
Mr McDowell said he decided to refer the papers to outside counsel to examine how Dean Lyons "came to make the confession and what lessons can be learned from that occurrence, in an effort to ensure that anything similar does not happen again".
Mr Lyons, who has since died, confessed to the murder in 1997 of Sylvia Shiels and Mary Callinan, but was later found to be innocent, following a confession by another person to the murders. Earlier this year the Garda Commissioner apologised to Mr Lyons's family for any embarrassment caused by the charges made against him and then withdrawn.
The Minister received a "comprehensive report" last week from the Garda Commissioner on the case, and a "cold case" review was under way on exhibits and samples to see if there was forensic material to support a prosecution against the other person.
He accepted there were understandable grounds for concern that Mr Lyons had made a statement in this case, and that was why, having taken the representations made by a number of deputies, including Tony Gregory (Ind, Dublin Central) into account, he had decided to refer the matter to outside counsel.
Mr Gregory said it was a critical issue that a statement which was neither videotaped nor audiotaped, but gave precise details of the murder weapon and scene, was taken from Dean Lyons, and he called for a public inquiry.
The Minister agreed that the "critical issue" was whether Mr Lyons's statement contained details which could only have been provided by his interrogators. When he received that counsel's report he would advise the House whether a public inquiry was necessary.
If an inquiry was necessary one possibility was to appoint somebody to carry out a sworn inquiry and issue a report, but Mr McDowell did not want to rule out any possibilities.
Mr Gregory said Mr Lyons's and the victims' families were entitled to a public inquiry, "given the length of time that has elapsed and the prevarications that have surrounded the case from the very beginning".
The Minister said he did not want to speculate about what advice counsel would give him but agreed it was a very grave issue.
