The Government is not expected to establish a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of the Co Donegal cattle dealer, Richard Barron, because of the proliferation of civil and criminal actions arising from the incident.
It is understood seven separate civil cases are under way along with two serious criminal cases. The civil cases are being taken against the State alleging false imprisonment, assault, breach of constitutional rights, harassment, intimidation and oppressive behaviour.
The two criminal cases have been brought against a garda and a civilian after an extensive three-year long internal investigation into allegations of Garda corruption arising from the death of Mr Barron in October 1996 and other separate incidents in Co Donegal. The internal investigation was the largest in the history of the force.
A number of the civil cases are from members of the McBrearty family.
The disclosure yesterday of the post-mortem results on the body of Mr Barron, which showed that he was killed in a road accident and not by an act of murder, led to renewed criticism by the Opposition.
Fine Gael TD Mr Jim Higgins said the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, should resign now, particularly for his refusal to publish the Garda's own internal inquiry into the affair.
The Barron and McBrearty families would have been saved great pain if the Garda inquiry team had begun by exhuming the victim's body rather than leaving it until now, he said.
The Attorney General has advised the Department of Justice, sources suggest, that such an inquiry could not be held without compromising existing trails.
Labour Party TD Mr Brendan Howlin called again for the immediate publication of the internal Garda inquiry, which was led by Assistant Commissioner Mr Kevin Carty.