Pressure from conservative Catholic groups may prevent the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into the Constitution.
Granting the European Convention equal status to existing constitutional provisions by way of a referendum could spark suspicion among conservative Catholics that the anti-abortion provisions of the Constitution would be swept away.
Similarly, equality before the law in European terms could open up the prospect of homosexual couples adopting children.
These considerations, along with resistance from within the Irish legal system, are expected to lead the Government to provide statutory recognition for the European Convention on Human Rights, parallel with but subservient to the Constitution. A referendum would not be held.
Such an approach would make the European Convention a tool for the interpretation of statutes and rights by the courts, provided there was no conflict with the Constitution and existing rights.
A decision in the matter is expected to be taken by the Cabinet this week so that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue, may announce it when Ireland assumes the chairmanship of the Council of Europe.
Three years ago, the Constitution Review Group recommended the Constitution's fundamental rights provisions should not be replaced by the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms because such a move would diminish some rights on personal liberty, equality before the law and the rights of children as well as create gaps in areas such as the right to jury trial and the guarantee that the State shall not endow religion.
In the Belfast Agreement, the Government undertook to strengthen the protection of human rights in this jurisdiction and spoke of incorporating the ECHR into the Constitution.