Calls for the establishment of a statutory inquiry into the retention of organs and glands by Irish hospitals were rejected by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, yesterday.
Attending his first official function after the holiday season, Mr Martin said that if the non-statutory inquiry into the affair, which has been running for over three years, were to be put on a statutory footing, it would "set the whole thing back a number of years".
Parents and relatives of those affected by the controversial practice - when organs were retained without consent in the 1970s and 1980s - have been demanding a statutory inquiry, which would not have to depend on the voluntary co-operation of hospitals.
"If you tried now to put that on a statutory basis you would set the whole thing back a number of years because it would introduce an entirely new dynamic to the inquiry methodology and format," Mr Martin said.
The Green Party criticised the Minister for not setting up a public inquiry.
In recent weeks it has emerged that up to 32 Irish hospitals harvested pituitary glands during post-mortem examinations on patients and supplied them for "minor compensation" to pharmaceutical companies for the manufacture of a growth hormone to treat children of small stature.
Mr Martin said he hadn't realised how widespread the practice had been but he believed the current non-statutory inquiry which he established, chaired by Ms Anne Dunne SC, was responsible for bringing the new information to light.
The Minister, who has been criticised by Parents for Justice, the organisation representing families affected, for making no "meaningful" response to the new revelations since they emerged, defended his actions to date and said he had been away on holiday when the new information came into the public domain.
But he acknowledged parents had "gone through enormous trauma" as a result of what had happened.
He said he expects a report from Ms Dunne before Christmas on her investigation into practices at paediatric hospitals. Her inquiry to date has cost over €15 million.
"I think it's important that we would await the inquiry's ultimate judgment on this, in terms of the rationale behind it," he said, pointing out that glands harvested were used to treat children with growth hormone deficiency. "What was wrong of course was that no one was informed about this and that parents' consent wasn't sought in advance," he said.
He rejected suggestions that the Department of Health must have been incompetent if it wasn't aware of the practice until the year 2000. He said hospitals were run independently of the Department.
He also said he didn't think his handling of the controversy would affect how he was treated in the Cabinet reshuffle.
The Minister was speaking after briefing the First Minister of Scotland, Mr Jack McConnell, on the benefits of the smoking ban. Scotland is debating the introduction of a smoking ban and Mr McConnell said his government had "not made a formal decision on compensation" for publicans who might be affected by a ban. He said, however, that he didn't "expect to be looking at compensation".
Meanwhile, Mr Martin said he was not aware of any disagreement over the pay being offered to the chief executive of the new Health Service Executive, whose post is expected to be ratified by Cabinet shortly.