Calling for an "open public inquiry" into the case, Gregory said the governmentappointed commission of investigation had "not answered" and "skirts around" the central question as to how Lyons came to be aware of specific details about the brutal murders of two women . . . Mary Callinan and Sylvia Sheils . . . at Grangegorman, Dublin in 1997.

Lyons had signed a statement of admission for the murders. However, charges against him were subsequently dropped. He died in 2000 and the Garda Siochana last year apologised to Lyons's family for their charging of an innocent man. The sole member of the commission of investigation, barrister George Birmingham, concluded that the detail about the murders, contained in the statement, was provided to Lyons as a result of a large number of very specific leading questions being asked by gardai in interviews during his detention.

However, Gregory argued the report failed "to address that central issue, " stating: "It in someway indicates that the details [emerged] in the way gardai questioned him. But there's no logical explanation in that, " he said, adding that it only "offers half, I wouldn't even call them, explanations."

The Dublin Central TD also said that when the file was sent to the DPP, it was "a selective file and not all the facts were available to the DPP.

There is no explanation as to who did that and why they decided to do it."

He said this all endorsed what the families of Dean Lyons and one of the murder victims have been saying all along . . . "that there is a need for an open public inquiry". If nothing else is done and the commission of investigation is accepted as the final statement on the case, "it would amount to; the effect would be, a cover up or a whitewash, " Gregory said.