The Government will not accept that Judge Brian Curtin should stay on as a Circuit Court judge even if he does not hear cases, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell has said.
"I can't think of any circumstance in which that would be appropriate. If you hold office as a judge you should exercise that office," he declared
"It isn't a question of holding office on paper, drawing a salary but not exercising your constitutional function to administer justice.
"That is not an acceptable outcome as everybody can clearly see." The Tralee-based judge has 18 years approximately to serve before he could qualify for a full pension from his €130,000-a-year post.
The Secretary General to the Government, Mr Dermot McCarthy, wrote to Judge Curtin yesterday afternoon on behalf of the Cabinet.
The Minister went on: "The Government has asked Judge Curtin to supply in writing any statements that he wants to make in relation to the facts, any statement that he wishes to make about the facts which emerged from the prosecution.
"We will await seeing that before taking any further steps, but he should realise that the Government strongly believes that this is a matter of very serious consequence and that it must act urgently to restore the confidence the people should have in the judiciary."
However, he made clear his opinion that the instruction to the jury last Friday to acquit Judge Curtin could not be the end of the matter.
"Well, obviously, the result in any jury trial depends on the choice of the jury or the direction of the court. In this case, obviously, it was a not guilty verdict by direction of the court and on a technical issue relating to the life of the warrant.
"I don't think that that is an issue that goes to the heart of the matter," said Mr McDowell, during an interview with RTÉ's Six One News.
"The Government has written to Brian Curtin asking him to avail of this opportunity between now and the next Government meeting to make a statement to Government of his reaction to, and any representations he wants to make in relation to the facts as disclosed in this case and it is for Judge Curtin to respond to that.
"The Government will consider the matter afresh next Tuesday in the light of the reports that it receives on that date."
Echoing the Taoiseach's tough line in the Dáil, the Minister ruled out offering Mr Curtin a compensation package to encourage him to resign.
"The Taoiseach was saying that if it is the case that there was a finding of stated misbehaviour there would not be a fudge by reference to the payment of compensation.
"The Government would act if it came to the view that there was stated misbehaviour in light of all of the material put before it and would not take the soft option of simply coming up with money to solve the problem."
The Minister was questioned about the possibility that the judge could be impeached by the Houses of the Oireachtas sitting as judge and jury.
Mr McDowell said the Attorney General, Mr Rory Brady had drawn attention to a case in Florida where a federal judge was impeached, even though he had been acquitted of a criminal charge.
"The judge was nonetheless impeached. I don't believe that the outcome of a trial on indictment concludes the issue. I think it is a matter for the Government to make a separate decision on the facts."
