Autumn date for report on Curtin

THE Oireachtas committee enquiring into the alleged misbehaviour of Judge Brian Curtin has set itself a target of reporting back to the Dáil and Seanad by autumn.

The seven-person committee yesterday met formally for the first time to agree a framework for its deliberations.

Speaking after the two-and-a-half hour meeting, chairperson Denis O’Donovan said that it had agreed to appoint leading Constitutional lawer Gerard Hogan SC as a legal advisor and also decided to appoint a legal team comprising of a firm of solicitors, a second senior counsel and a junior counsel.

The committee also resolved to keep Judge Curtin’s legal team abreast of its decisions.

“We will be informing the judge’s solicitors of all the steps that we are taking. We will be corresponding with them in relation to the decision that emanated from today’s proceedings and will respond in any way that we can to any queries that they raise.”

Mr O’Donovan, who also chairs the Oireachtas committee on the Constitution, said that all the committee’s deliberations will be in camera. However, he pointed out that if the judge were to request the hearing to be public, the committee would be obliged to accede.

“All things being equal, if we can proceed unhindered, I would hope to have the report before the Houses of the Oireachtas in the autumn,” said Mr O’Donovan.

“There is no reason that we should not have it ready by then. The committee has already agreed to sit during August to faciliate that,” he said.