Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has pledged to maintain pressure on the British government to establish a full independent and public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane.
Speaking after a meeting with the family of the Belfast solicitor - murdered by the UDA in 1989 - Mr Ahern said the Government would continue to articulate the need to have "as full an inquiry as possible, not moving one iota in relation to our principled stand for a full independent inquiry."
Dermot Ahern with Geraldine and John Finucane after their meeting earlier today
Finucane's widow Geraldine, her solicitor Peter Madden, and her son John met with Mr Ahern for over an hour in Government Buildings this afternoon. They have previously met with the Taoiseach on a number of occasions.
The family and Mr Justice Peter Cory, the retired Canadian supreme court judge who recommended holding an inquiry into the murder, have rejected the terms of refrence of the proposed inquiry established by the British government under the Inquiries Act 2005.
The new laws allow for sections of the investigation to be heard in private but the Finucanes have insisted they will not co-operate unless all evidence is heard in public.
They believe the restrictions would hinder the independence of the inquiry, damaging both its effectiveness and openness.
Downing Street has so far resisted pressure to have a completely public inquiry, raising questions over its ability to fulfil its remit to establish whether there was official British collusion in Mr Finucane's murder.
"It has been a difficult path to where we are today and I think the family are under no illusions that it's going to continue to be difficult, given the fact that the legislation has been passed in the British parliament changing the 1921 legislation," said Mr Ahern.
He said the Government had made it clear to the British government on numerous occasions that it was not satisfied with the legislation which had replaced the 1921 Tribunal of Inquiry Act.
"We agree entirely with the family, we agree entirely with Judge Corry. But we are where we are at this point in time," he said.
Mrs Finucane said that the possibility of initiating a case against the British Government in the European Court of Human Rights had not been ruled out.
"The difficulty is that the control of the inquiry does not lie with the panel of judges. The control lies with the government and, in this case, it is the government that are under scrutiny and therefore that removes the independence of the tribunal," she added.
The Finucane family has written to senior British judges asking them not to work with any inquiry operating under the new legal framework.
Human rights group Amnesty International has also launched an internet campaign to persuade senior British judicial figures not to cooperate with the planned inquiry.