The master of the National Maternity Hospital has said he supports calls for a statutory inquiry into the organs retention controversy.
Dr Declan Keane said he hoped a decision would be taken soon to "move to a statutory inquiry".
An inquiry into the affair, chaired by Ms Anne Dunne SC, was established by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, in April 2000. It was, however, established on a non-statutory basis and therefore is dependent on the voluntary co-operation of all parties.
It conducts its work in private and is examining policies and procedures surrounding the removal, retention, storage and disposal of body parts without consent after post-mortems in all 201 hospitals in the State since the 1970s.
In her interim report, Ms Dunne admitted she was concerned at the attitude of a number of hospitals that had failed to co-operate with its investigations. However, she did not name them.
Dr Keane's comments, made during a public debate at Trinity College, Dublin, echo those of Parents For Justice, the organisation representing families who discovered that organs of their deceased children had been retained without their consent. The group withdrew from the inquiry in October, calling for it to be established on a statutory footing. Such an inquiry could compel witnesses to attend and could make orders for the discovery of documents.
In January the group called for the Dunne inquiry to be disbanded and now, frustrated at not having yet got answers to why organs were retained without consent, they have begun legal action against hospitals, health boards, doctors, consultants, the Minister for Health and the Attorney General. Mr Martin said he proposes to continue with the Dunne inquiry in its present format.