Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney has received the final report of the Dunne inquiry into the retention of babies' organs by hospitals.
A Department of Health spokesman told ireland.com Ms Harney would be consulting the Attorney General about the findings of the report before presenting it to Cabinet. The report will not be made public "for a number of weeks", he said.
Parents for Justice have condemned the delay in the publication of the findings. Ms Fionnuala O'Reilly of Parents for Justice claimed the delay was an attempt by the Government to "whitewash" the findings.
She said there was a lot of speculation among families involved that the report would not be published for fear of defamation actions by hospitals named.
"But that's nonsense," she said. "The report can be read into the Dáil record in the same way as the Travers Report. We are imploring the Tánaiste to adopt this approach."
The Dunne Inquiry was established in 2000 to inquire into the retention of organs by a number of hospitals. It was asked to review postmortem policy, practice and procedure in all hospitals in the State since 1970, with particular reference to organ removal, retention, storage and disposal. It has cost a total of €20 million since its establishment without a substantive report being produced by senior counsel Anne Dunne.
Last month, Ms Harney announced its work would be wound up at the end of this month and an independent expert would be commissioned by the department if the report on the inquiry findings has not been published.
Ms O'Reilly said today there were fears that any report would fail to name any specific hospitals and would not result in sanctions. "I feel that €20 million has been paid for a whitewash and an exercise in damage limitation."
She said families were becoming increasingly distressed and frustrated by the delays.
Parents for Justice repeatedly called for the inquiry to be established on a statutory basis and therefore would not depend on the voluntary co-operation of hospitals. The group withdrew its co-operation from the inquiry in December 2002 over the Government's decision not to place the inquiry on a statutory footing.
It is understood that least that six pharmaceutical companies and 32 hospitals were involved in the removal of organs and glands from babies during postmortems.