Judge Brian Curtin is expected to launch a High Court challenge to an order to produce his personal computer from an Oireachtas inquiry investigating whether he should be removed from office.
The Tralee-based judge is to be given 21 days to decide if he will obey a demand by the inquiry, oppose it in the courts, or ignore it, which would lead to legal proceedings by the inquiry.
The order will be served on Mr Curtin in the next 48 hours, following the decision by the inquiry headed by Fianna Fáil Cork South West TD, Mr Denis O'Donovan, to use Oireachtas compellability powers.
Judge Curtin was acquitted of a charge of possessing child pornography after the Circuit Court ruled that the Garda seizure of his computer in May 2002 breached his constitutional rights, and that any evidence contained in it could not be used.
Last June, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr McDowell, moved a motion for the removal of Judge Curtin from office "for stated misbehaviour".
The members of the committee are Deputy Denis O'Donovan, chairman; Deputies Jerry Cowley, Jim O'Keeffe and Jan O'Sullivan; and Senators John Dardis, Geraldine Feeney and Michael Finucane.
The committee has heard detailed presentations over the last two weeks as to whether Oireachtas compellability powers could be employed, and counter arguments from Mr Curtin's legal team.
Under section 3 of the Committees of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Compellability, Privileges and Immunities of Witnesses) Act 1997, Oireachtas inquiries are entitled to compel the production of evidence and witnesses.
Mr Curtin is represented by the Listowel-based solicitor, Mr Robert Pierse of Pierse and Fitzgibbon, and senior counsels Mr John Rogers and Mr Paul Byrnes, and junior counsel Mr Mervyn Hegarty.
The Oireachtas inquiry, which is acting under powers offered by Article 35.4.1 of the Constitution, has employed the services of Matheson Ormsby Prentice solicitors, Mr Kevin Feeney SC and Ms Una Ní Raifeartaigh.
The inquiry heard detailed submissions last week and held a final 2½-hour meeting yesterday morning before it delivered its ruling to Mr Curtin's legal team in a 90-minute presentation last evening.
Though his legal team gave no indication of their next move last night, it is understood they put forward detailed legal arguments as to why Oireachtas compellability powers could not be used to get access to the computer.
The computer remains in the custody of the Garda Síochána because Mr Curtin, who continues to receive the pay of a Circuit Court judge, has made no attempt to get it back since he was acquitted.
The committee, which has not sought to get the computer directly from the Garda Commissioner, believes that problems with the chain of evidence shown during his trial would be removed if Mr Curtin gave the computer to them. The joint committee has sat in private throughout but a transcript of its hearings has been kept.
