The Irish government is coming under pressure to publish the findings of an independent inquiry investigating allegations about the Garda handling of the Omagh bomb investigation.
The three-man committee was established last year after the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Nuala O'Loan, claimed that the gardai withheld from the RUC intelligence that the Real IRA was planning a car bomb attack before the 1998 Omagh explosion.
Committee members include Dermot Nally, former secretary to the government, Eamon Barnes, former director of public prosecutions and Joe Brosnan, former secretary of the Department of Justice. Labour justice spokesman Joe Costello last night (Friday) demanded that Justice Minister Michael McDowell explain why the committee's findings had not yet been published.
"Given that it now more than 16 months since the original inquiry was established, we are surely entitled to some indication as to when the report will be concluded and published," he said.
Mr Costello said that if the allegations were found to be true it would have "enormous consequences" for the Garda while, if they were false it was "only fair that the stain of suspicion" be removed from the force without further delay.
