The Government is to create a top-level group of officials to develop a privacy law next week, though major doubts exist within the Department of Justice that one can be drafted.
The officials, drawn from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Attorney General's Office, have been told to report to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Michael McDowell, "in the autumn".
In the Dáil on Thursday, the Minister said "the main points" of legislation to loosen the Republic's libels laws will also be ready by the same time.
A number of Fianna Fáil Ministers are strongly opposed to extra press freedoms, though it is not clear - even within the Government - whether the Cabinet last week agreed to tie the progress of the two pieces of legislation.
Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats did agree in their Programme for Government that they would introduce legislation to ease libel laws, but also to protect privacy.
Dealing with questions from Fine Gael TD, Mr Jim O'Keeffe, Mr McDowell was noticeably reluctant to back the concept of a privacy law, which he believes cannot be achieved, sources have told The Irish Times.
Reflecting the difficulty, one source said last night: "How do you define privacy in law? The Leas Cross Prime Time programme is in the public interest at one level, and an invasion of privacy on the other."
Though the Government officially insists that progress will be made on both pieces of legislation, there are strong suspicions that the issue is being "pushed into the long grass".
Speaking in the Dáil, Mr McDowell said: "The focus of efforts before and during my time as Minister have been on reform in the area of defamation but in the meantime there have been notable developments of jurisprudence in the area of privacy in the European Court of Human Rights, in English courts and in our own courts.
"There is a view that the developing jurisprudence in this area, as well as the capacity of our courts could have been sufficient to protect the privacy of persons.
"However, the Government's considered view is that the area is worthy of study," he said.
