The Cabinet is understood to have decided there should be no further inquiries into the retention of human organs by hospitals.
Ministers yesterday considered a memorandum brought by the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, based on the findings of the investigation into the controversy, carried out by senior counsel Anne Dunne over the last five years.
Ms Harney will today meet the Parents for Justice organisation, the representative body for families affected by the human organ retention controversy.
The Dunne inquiry was closed down by the Government at the end of March without completing its investigations.
The inquiry, which directly cost more than €13 million, only completed investigations into the retention of organs in three paediatric hospitals.
It was originally mandated to examine postmortem practices in all public hospitals going back to 1970, as well as any links with the pharmaceutical industry in relation to the retention of organs.
However, informed sources said last night the Cabinet had decided that a new inquiry into the uncompleted area of the original mandate should not be established.
A spokesman for the Minister confirmed last night that she would be meeting the Parents for Justice group this afternoon.
The spokesman declined to comment on the nature of the report given to Cabinet or on what Ms Harney will be telling the group when they meet.
The Parents for Justice organisation withdrew its co-operation from the Dunne inquiry in October 2002 and has consistently called for a full statutory investigation into the controversy.
Members of the group are currently pursuing court action to try and force the Government to establish a full-scale inquiry.
The Government decided last autumn that the Dunne inquiry should conclude at the end of March.
The Department of Health subsequently rejected an application by the inquiry for a time extension until next year as well as a request for additional resources to allow it to complete its full mandate.
At the end of March the Dunne inquiry submitted a report that ran to 54 boxes of material including appendices.
The Minister said that the report would be considered by her department in consultation with the Attorney General.
Internal documents which were submitted by a number of hospitals to the Dunne inquiry are scheduled to be released within a number of weeks under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, following a ruling last week by the Information Commissioner, Emily O'Reilly.
In her ruling, however, Ms O'Reilly criticised the adversarial approach adopted by the National Maternity Hospital in relation to her request to access the material involved.
The commissioner last year warned the hospital that her staff had the power to raid the premises to seek access to the documents.
The material was presented to the commissioner one day ahead of a scheduled visit.
