It would be difficult to exaggerate the seriousness with which the executive and the Oireachtas view the controversy engulfing the judiciary over the Sheedy case.
The resolve of the Government and Opposition parties that heads will roll if it is found that a judge, or judges, intervened unusually in the case could not be overestimated.
As the courts reopen on Monday after the Easter recess, the judiciary faces the most serious challenge to its independence since the controversy surrounding the appointment of Mr Harry Whelehan as president of the High Court in 1994.
That prospect is being regretted and relished, in equal measure, by all parties in Leinster House. The politicians, for once, feel they can sit back while the most aloof institution of the State gets it in the neck. It is accepted across the parties that the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, had no involvement in the case.
Political sources believe it will be Tuesday or Wednesday, at the earliest, before the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Hamilton, is in a position to complete his report on the circumstances surrounding the suspension of the balance of the sentence on Philip Sheedy, a Dublin architect, by Judge Cyril Kelly in the Circuit Court.
Sheedy had served one year of a four-year jail sentence for dangerous driving, causing the death of Mrs Anne Ryan, in Tallaght in March 1996.
The decision was challenged by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Eamonn Barnes, last month and Sheedy went voluntarily to Mountjoy Prison to be readmitted.
The Cabinet hopes to consider the Chief Justice's report next Wednesday. The outcome of his inquiries will determine, in effect, whether any further action is required to restore confidence in the legal system.
"Everybody else has had to take their hits," said one source close to the Government. "They must take their's now. We will wait until they have their i's dotted and their t's crossed."
"These are the most serious allegations that could be made," said another. "The judiciary has always been above reproach but it cannot be above the law."
There is, surprisingly, a common, cross-party view about the gravity of the allegations. "All of the great institutions in the State have been damaged by scandals in this decade: the bishops, the politicians, the banks," was how one senior politician put it.
"We are run by lawyers and they are not accountable to anyone. There may have been controversies about lawyers' fees, sentencing policy, but throughout all, the judiciary has been seen to be independent."
Another version of the angst, especially among Government politicians, is that the Dail is being run by tribunals and codes of conduct. "The only threat to this Government comes from judicial tribunals. They can't tell us how to put our house in order if there is not order in their own," one insider said.
It has been suggested by more than one politician this week that the chairman of the beef tribunal, Mr Justice Hamilton, once remarked that the tribunal would not have been necessary if the right questions had been answered in the Dail.
The questions which the Government and Opposition want the Chief Justice to answer are: did a senior judge intervene in the listing of a case in a lower court? Did a senior judge contact another judge about it? Who did what, when, and why?
It is readily pointed out that Ireland is a small country. Judges, like politicians, hold constitutional positions but it is the politicians who are required to respond to public representations.
If there is a scintilla of truth in the current allegations, the Government expects the Chief Justice "to deliver". The question of moving to impeach a judge would only be considered as the last, very regrettable, resort. The procedure has never been used before.
