An Oireachtas committee has rejected a proposal to set up a tribunal of inquiry into the Sheedy case, and seems set to tell the Dail it has failed to find a way to examine the affair any further.
The Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality and Women's Rights will meet this week, possibly tomorrow, to finalise a report to the Dail. The committee was asked by the Dail in April to seek ways to investigate the Sheedy case, but has been frustrated in all its efforts to do so.
The draft report to be considered this week is expected to say that the committee has failed to get the voluntary co-operation of the individuals involved, and has failed to get the Chief Justice to reopen his investigation into the affair. The committee has been advised that other options, such as seeking to compel the former judges involved to give evidence before the committee or holding a tribunal of inquiry, are likely to face constitutional objections.
At a private meeting of the committee last Thursday, Labour's justice spokesman, Mr Brendan Howlin, and his Fine Gael counterpart, Mr Jim Higgins, proposed that a tribunal of inquiry be set up to examine the affair, chaired by a judge from outside the State. However, the committee rejected this proposal by 10 votes to eight, with the Fianna Fail members of the committee voting against.
Instead, the committee is understood to have approved a proposal from Fianna Fail deputy, Ms Mary Hanafin, that it formulate a report saying that it has gone as far as it can in the case. Ms Hanafin is understood to have argued that because the committee's remaining options are fraught with constitutional difficulties, it cannot recommend any of them.
The committee has been advised that the former judges who were central to the case may be able to argue that they should not be answerable to any outside body - including a tribunal - for their judicial actions, and this would therefore severely limit the powers of a tribunal to find the truth.
The proposal from Mr Howlin and Mr Higgins for a tribunal may be put again this week, but it appears unlikely that the committee will agree to it. Instead, the problem of how to find out what happened in the case will simply be handed back to the Dail.
The controversy arose from the case of Dublin architect Philip Sheedy who was released from jail last year after Mr Cyril Kelly, then a Circuit Court judge, suspended the remaining three years of a four-year sentence imposed on him for drink driving causing death.
His case was listed for rehearing by Mr Kelly after the then Supreme Court judge, Mr Hugh O'Flaherty, asked the then Dublin County Registrar of the Circuit Court, Mr Michael Quinlan, if such a re-listing was possible.
The Oireachtas committee resolved a month ago to ask the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Hamilton, who initially investigated the case before the two judges and court official involved resigned, to resume his investigation. However, Mr Justice Hamilton wrote to the committee on May 25th and again on June 10th, saying it would be "constitutionally impermissible" for him to do this.