The deputy chairman of the North's Policing Board has cast doubt on the usefulness of a judicial inquiry into collusion.
Mr Denis Bradley, who once brokered talks between the British government and the IRA, said he had supported and worked for the establishment of the Saville Inquiry into the Bloody Sunday shootings.
But yesterday, in response to renewed calls for a wider sworn inquiry from nationalist politicians, Mr Finucane's family and from a range of human rights non-governmental organisations, he said: "I called for a public inquiry into the Bloody Sunday issue and I would be less than honest if I didn't say that sometimes I'm disappointed. I do not have as much confidence in a public judicial inquiry as some other people." He added: "I'm disappointed in the amount of legal detail in which it involves itself.
"I get disappointed and saddened for the people who are at the end of this, the families themselves because it has gone on for such a period of time and at great stress."
The Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, said Mr Bradley should concentrate more on the rogue officers he said were still serving with the PSNI.
Mr Adams claimed: "Senior officers in Special Branch who authorised and directed these killings were taken out of Special Branch back into senior uniformed ranks and are now running the police service.
"Denis Bradley, rather than pontificate on judicial inquiries, should be facing up to the reality that he's working on a neutered Policing Board which has not weeded out human rights abusers." The SDLP policing spokesman, Mr Alex Attwood, said efforts must continue to bring the collusion controversy to a close.
"The convening of a Finucane inquiry cannot be delayed and must be inevitable. It is essential that any inquiry has full and free access to cabinet joint intelligence committee and all Ministry of Defence reports and minutes. Any inquiry must also have the power to compel witnesses, be they political, policing or military in background."
He continued: "The most important unanswered questions remain to those who authorised, funded, approved and received briefings on the work of the Force Research Unit. This issue is much more than the 20 or so people who may or may not be prosecuted. No impediment must now be created to avoid individuals with knowledge or with responsibility to evade further their public accounting for the past."
The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, is opposed to the holding of a judicial inquiry. He has suggested a committee of MPs working in private could examine the evidence and issue a report.