The Taoiseach has called for an independent judicial inquiry into the killing of Robert Hamill, who was kicked to death in a sectarian attack in Portadown in 1997.
Mr Ahern made the announcement after meeting relatives of Mr Hamill at Government Buildings yesterday. The family had briefed him on recent developments in the case, including new information which a sister of the dead man, Ms Diane Hamill, described as "very significant".
The relatives were accompanied by the director of the human rights group, the Committee on the Administration of Justice, whose report on the case was presented to the Taoiseach.
In a statement afterwards, Mr Ahern said he had followed the case closely over the past three years, and described it as a matter of "urgent public interest".
He added: "Very serious and unanswered questions have been raised about the role of individual police officers at the time of the attack and the detailed reports we have received today add to our concerns."
Calling for the issues to be addressed in a manner which would command public confidence, Mr Ahern said the Government had come to the view that the case should now be the subject of an "independent judicial public inquiry".
A Belfast coroner said on Wednesday that there would be no inquest into Mr Hamill's death because of concerns for the safety of witnesses. In March, a Portadown man was acquitted of the murder in Belfast's Crown Court, but sentenced to four years for causing an affray.
The judge in the case, Lord Justice McCollum, was critical of the RUC's role on the night of the killing, noting that officers at the scene had first ignored a warning and then positioned their Land Rover in such a way that they did not have a full view of the incident.
However, the judge also commented that their early intervention was unlikely to have saved Mr Hamill, who died in hospital 12 days after the attack. The family have accused RUC officers of making no effort to help him during the attack, and of treating relatives with "contempt" in the wake of the incident.
Ms Hamill last night thanked the Taoiseach for his support and said that only an investigation on the lines of the Lawrence inquiry in Britain would uncover the facts of the case.
