Government ministers are dismayed that the Chief Justice's report into the handling of the Philip Sheedy case contains no recommendations on what action should be taken.
The Cabinet will hold a special meeting at 8 a.m. tomorrow to discuss the report which the Chief Justice, Mr Liam Hamilton, presented to the Attorney General, Mr David Byrne, last night.
The lengthy report is expected to be published in full after tomorrow's Cabinet meeting.
The Attorney General had to leave his office yesterday to attend the removal of his father, Mr Denis Byrne, who died in Monasterevin, Co Kildare, on Tuesday. But the AG received the report afterwards.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, returned from the Northern Ireland negotiations at Stormont to his Department in Dublin to study the report.
The first opportunity that the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and ministers will have collectively to consider the report in depth will be at tomorrow's special Cabinet meeting in Government Buildings.
However, senior sources told The Irish Times yesterday that ministers were briefed on the matter yesterday and, as a result, they understood that the Chief Justice's report did not include recommendations.
The absence of advice on how the fallout of the case might be handled would be a source of "disappointment" to ministers, one source said.
Mr Hamilton's report sets out in precise detail what happened from the time Sheedy was sentenced in October 1997, for dangerous driving causing death, to March 1999 when he returned to prison voluntarily after deciding not to challenge an application by the DPP to have the decision to quash the balance of his sentence overturned.
"The opinion was strongly held by ministers that this is a matter for the judiciary that is constantly proclaiming its independence. This is seen as a classic case that the judiciary should deal with its own problems. There would be anger if it were seen to end up on the Government's table," one source said.
It has also emerged that Sheedy will next week begin a legal process to have his four-year sentence reduced - a course of action he has chosen not to follow in the past.
RTE last night reported that serious conflicts have emerged between the accounts of two circuit court judges involved in the Sheedy case. They are Judge Joseph Mathews, who originally sentenced Sheedy to four years in prison and Judge Cyril Kelly, who subsequently suspended three years of that sentence.
The president of the Circuit Court, Mr Esmonde Smythe is believed to have told the Chief Justice that it was not usual practice for one judge in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to review a sentence imposed by another judge who was only temporarily unavailable.
With political pressure growing for a full Dail debate on the matter, the Government has agreed to allow time to discuss the report when the House resumes on Tuesday after the Easter recess.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, will be briefed on the contents of the Chief Justice's report in Dublin today - he was in Brussels yesterday for the European summit meeting.
The Fine Gael justice spokesman, Mr Jim Higgins, last night said no decisions could be made until after the publication of the Chief Justice's report.
The Labour justice spokesman, Mr Brendan Howlin, called for the early publication of the report since the contents of statements by two of the judges involved were being debated in the media.