An Oireachtas committee has announced it will hold hearings in relation to the murder of Co Louth man Seamus Ludlow following the publication of an interim report on the killing this evening.
The initial report by Mr Justice Henry Barron, who also presented findings in relation to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, was given to the Ludlow family and to the media following initial confusion over whether it would be published at all today.
Chairman of the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights, Sean Ardagh, refused to comment in any way on the content of the report or its conclusions and he refused to say whether the committee took legal advice on its publication.
He accepted that there had been a long delay between the time the report was handed to Government in October 2004 and its final publication this evening, but he said there had been legal issues to resolve.
The report is strongly critical of the Garda investigation into the murder and of the failure to pursue four suspects in the killing. It says the "only credible" explanation for this failure is that "a direction was given which led the investigating officer D/Supt Dan Murphy to abandon plans to have the suspects interviewed outside the jurisdiction".
"As to why such a direction might have been issued, only one credible explanation has been offered - that it was done in order to avoid a situation where Gardai might feel obliged to reciprocate by allowing RUC officers to attend interviews of suspects in the State."
The brother of the murdered Co Louth forestry described the confusion today over the report as "a shambles".
A press conference scheduled for 2.15pm was cancelled, but was then rescheduled for later this afternoon. The chairman of the committee Sean Ardagh said that business in the Dail had delayed the committee's discussions of the report today.
Mr Ludlow's brother, Kevin, who travelled to Dublin with four nephews for the report's publication, labelled the postponement "a shambles".
He repeated his family's call for a full public inquiry into his brother's murder at the hands of a loyalist gang with alleged police collusion.
"The events today are a disgrace and a shambles. The justice minister told the Dáil this morning that we would be given a copy of the report before publication. But we still have not seen it and we have been left totally in the dark as to when it will be published.
"As far as the family is concerned the latest episode just adds insult to nearly 30 years of injury by the government," he said.
The body of Mr Ludlow (47) was found with gunshot wounds after being dumped in a laneway not far from his home at Culfore, Mountpleasant, Dundalk, in May 1976.
He was allegedly shot by four members of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) who picked him up as he walked home north of Dundalk on May 1st, 1976.
An inquest held earlier this year, the second into Mr Ludlow's murder, heard that the RUC had given a senior member of the gardaí the names of four members of the UDA who were suspects for the murder.
This information was passed on to to the Garda anti-terrorist section in Dublin, but it was never acted on.
The Ludlow family had said it would not be attending the publication of the report as family members had not been properly informed it was going ahead.
Jimmy Sharkey, a nephew of Mr Ludlow, said: "We heard it second-hand, maybe even third-hand, from someone in the media who contacted me around 9.30pm last night to tell me it was being published today at 2.15pm at a press conference."
Mr Sharkey said a request by his solicitor to view a copy of the report was denied. He said the only way the family were going to get the full truth was through an independent inquiry.
Mr Sharkey said the decision by Garda headquarters not to pursue the information on the suspects given by the RUC raised serious questions for the family and strengthened the case for an independent inquiry.
The family said bringing the truth out into the open 30 years after the murder was still important as many of his siblings were still waiting for answers.
Additional reporting: PA