The Taoiseach Mr Ahern faced pressure tonight for a public inquiry into the Dublin-Monaghan bomb atrocities dating back more than 30 years.
Responding to the report from former Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Henry Barron on the 1974 attacks, Mr Ahern described the incidents as "unspeakable outrages and despicable and cowardly acts of inhumanity."
But he said the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice would now study the Barron findings - which directed criticism at both the British and Irish authorities of the day - and report back within three months ahead of any decision being taken about a public inquiry.
Mr Ahern said: "It is some 30 years since the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of May 17th 1974 but that has not diminished the need for answers and clarity about what happened on what was one of the blackest days in our recent history.
"Not only were innocent lives lost on that terrible day but for many the legacy of pain and suffering remains. Victims and families were left devastated. Many people never recovered. Some still suffer pain to this day.
Sinn Féin's Mr Caoimhghín O Caolain said the Barron report was an indictment of successive Irish and British governments.
He claimed: "The publication of the report is firstly a tribute to the dedication of the survivors and the bereaved of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. "But for their persistence there would never have been such an investigation and the victims would indeed have been largely forgotten by Irish society.
"For almost 30 years the victims and their families have been seeking truth and justice. Our sympathy and solidarity is with them on this day as they relive the terrible events of May 17th 1974. Labour's Mr Joe Costello said the principal conclusion to be drawn was that the victims and survivors of the bombings were very badly let down by the institutions of the state.
He added: "What is very clear is that the Garda investigation into what was the greatest mass murder in the history of the state was totally inadequate and that there did not appear to have been any real determination on the part of the authorities to see those responsible brought to justice.
"Even allowing for the very difficult conditions in which the Gardai were operating at the time, the account of the investigation is a sorry chapter of shortcomings and failure.
The conclusion of the report that it is likely that there was collusion between those responsible for the bombing and members of the RUC and UDR is truly shocking, if not altogether surprising in view of the evidence suggesting this produced by the media over the years.
PA