Joint Oireachtas Committee chairman, Denis O'Donovan, has welcomed a Supreme Court decision which will allow it to inquire into the alleged misbehaviour of Judge Brian Curtin.
Judge Curtin had challenged the establishment of the select committee and an order it made directing him to produce his personal computer.
Mr O'Donovan said today's ruling was historic and hugely important, and cleared the way for the Joint Committee to resume its work.
The inquiry was set up in 2004 after Judge Curtin was acquitted on a charge of possessing child pornography. The judge at the time found that a warrant used to search the judge's home was out of date.
The Joint Committee report will go before both Houses of the Oireachtas which will consider the impeachment of the Circuit Court Judge.
Mr O'Donovan, a Fianna Fáil deputy, said the Joint Committee would resume work shortly and would proceed to enforce an order on Judge Curtin to obtain his computer and other materials.
He said the Committee intends to get an international expert to examine the computer, discs and other documents.
Committee can order judge to produce computer
The Supreme Court had been asked to decide the precise meaning of Article 35 of the Constitution, which deals with the appointment and removal of judges from office, and whether the procedures put in place by the Oireachtas in the Curtin case conform to it.
A motion calling for the judge's removal from office had been set down before the Oireachtas but was adjourned while a select committee was established to inquire into and compile a report on his alleged misbehaviour.
The Court found that the Oireachtas can give a Joint Committee the power to report without making findings of fact, making recommendations or expressing opinions.
It said the Committee and the Houses of the Oireachtas can and must give Judge Curtin his full rights to constitutional justice and fair procedures.
The power to call a judge as a witness does not involve any invasion of judicial power or independence, the judgment concluded, and the Committee can order the Judge to produce his personal computer.
But that committee's work was on hold pending the outcome of first the High Court action, which Judge Curtin lost, and now this Supreme Court appeal, which was heard last October.
