Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said that any new evidence on the Omagh bombing would be examined.
However, he added, the view was that any information given to the Garda by the security forces was acted on long before the explosions. "The bomb that was in preparation at that time was intercepted," Mr Ahern said.
The Government would do everything it could to both help the Omagh victims and to support the ongoing investigation, into which significant resources had been put by the security services, North and South, and in England, he added.
The Taoiseach was replying to Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte, who said that last week the outgoing assistant chief constable of the PSNI, Sam Kinkaid, together with his successor and Supt Norman Baxter, who headed the inquiry into the bombings, had given an off-the-record briefing to the families.
They had made quite clear their view that both MI5 and the Garda had relevant information which was not passed on to the RUC at the time and which, taken together, would have placed them on a much higher state of alert as far as Omagh was concerned.
Mr Ahern said the Government would obviously consider all the issues.
"The deputy is right that we have not got to the end of this matter. The end will come only when we get successful prosecutions against the people who perpetrated the bombing in Omagh and killed, injured and maimed so many people, affecting many families for the rest of their lives," the Taoiseach said.
"I do not think I have even met Sam Kinkaid, but I am sure he is a fine policeman, and his record shows that. If his intelligence sources did not tell him something, I have no comment to make on that.
"Previous to that, however, long before the explosion, MI5 did not tell the PSNI about the information it had. I have no comment to make on that. Previous to that, however, long before the explosion, MI5 gave information to the Garda," the Taoiseach said.
Mr Ahern added that there were a number of interceptions that summer and a number of incidents, including people being arrested leaving Ireland.
