Evidence gathered from Judge Brian Curtin's home will be shown to the Oireachtas inquiry set up to investigate his conduct, the Government has privately told the Opposition.
The Oireachtas yesterday hurriedly passed two pieces of legislation needed before the seven-strong inquiry team can be formed next week.
The first will force Mr Curtin to appear before the inquiry and to produce all papers and other material sought; while the second confirms that the inquiry members will not be committing a crime by handling child pornographic images.
During a series of confidential briefings with Opposition politicians, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said the computer seized by Garda detectives from Mr Curtin's home would form part of the evidence going before the inquiry.
Charges of possession of child pornography against the judge were dropped last month after it emerged that a search warrant was used too late, and, therefore, that the computer was seized illegally.
However, the Minister's confidence that the computer and other material seized in this raid, including notebooks and other records, can be presented to the Oireachtas is not shared everywhere.
In the Dáil yesterday, Minister of State, Mr Brian Lenihan, said strict rules governing the admissibility of evidence were designed to deal with criminal trials: "The House is not trying an offence in this matter," he told Labour Party TD, Mr Joe Costello.
"The Attorney General and the Minister for Justice have both been told by senior figures down in the Law Library that there could be problems with this," one legal source told The Irish Times.
However, the same source went on: "This isn't a criminal trial. It is an inquiry under the Constitution and the Government must have the means to carry out its constitutional power to remove a judge on grounds of stated misbehaviour."
Clearly doubtful about the speed of the Government's action, Fine Gael TD Mr Jim O'Keeffe said: "It is with reluctance I go along with what is proposed today." The Government would have to accept "complete responsibility for the consequences of its actions and for any difficulties that may arise as a result of its hasty actions", he warned.
The changes to the compellability legislation forcing the judge to appear before the inquiry have been put in place as a back-up for the Government's effort to remove Mr Curtin.
"If the Book of Evidence can be produced, that will do the job. If not, the judge can be forced to produce the computer and that will perform the same end," the legal source continued.
The two pieces of legislation passed yesterday could be challenged immediately by the judge once they are signed into law next week by the President, Mrs McAleese.
However, Mr Curtin, who is receiving medical treatment in the St John of God Hospital, Stillorgan, and whose lawyers insist is currently unable to issue instructions to them, could bide his time until he is called before the inquiry.
He could at that point come in and say he was doing so voluntarily but that he refused to accept that he could be compelled to do so, or that he could be compelled to produce material.
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, was forced to move on Wednesday to clarify the scope of the changes to compellability legislation after senior judges began to express alarm that the amendment could leave them open to being called to appear before the Oireachtas in much wider circumstances.
Replying to a question from Fine Gael leader Mr Enda Kenny, Mr Ahern said: "It absolutely cannot be construed to be any judge. It would only be a judge before the House where there is an application to remove him and it could not be extended to anybody else."
The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, told the Dáil yesterday legislation to deal with judicial conduct breaches will be published "by the end of the year" - over two years late.
