An RUC spokesman yesterday concurred with the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, that there is little prospect of any further major developments in the investigation into the group responsible for Omagh bombing.
"We feel we have taken the investigation as far as we can at this point in time," the spokesman said.
"Obviously people will continue to go over everything we did just in case we missed something or did not appreciate the importance of something."
The continuing review of the evidence gathered by the RUC is in keeping with guidelines on major investigations set out by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) in Britain.
Details of the case will be re-examined by different officers and even officers from outside forces to see if they can adduce evidence that could lead to a conviction even years from now.
The official stance of the RUC and the Garda is that the file on the Omagh atrocity is "still open" and will remain so until the perpetrators are convicted.
In reality, the two major investigations began to be wound down within a few months of the bombing on August 29th, 1998.
Initially between 40 and 50 detectives were involved in each of the Garda and RUC investigations.
Garda sources close to the investigation say that everyone involved in the Omagh bombing - from the men who mixed the ingredients for the explosives in Co Meath to the Dundalk thieves who were hired to steal cars, and the Dundalk and south Armagh team who assembled and drove the bomb to Omagh - were arrested and questioned, some twice.
However, in the end the investigation really developed into an intelligence-gathering operation, with little indication that either government was prepared to respond to the greatest terrorist outrage of the Troubles with anything other than standard police procedures.
This approach contrasts with that taken in the Veronica Guerin murder case in the Republic.
In that investigation the State employed the use of "accomplice evidence" or "supergrasses", people who were prepared to give evidence against their former accomplices in return for some form of immunity and protection against retaliation.
The use of such witnesses proved highly effective in the trials of Paul Ward and Kevin Meehan, who were convicted on evidence which included the testimony of three former accomplices.
Senior gardai say it would have been more difficult to obtain accomplice evidence against the Omagh bombers as there would be a greater fear among such people of retaliation from their terrorist associates.
However, the use of such witnesses by the RUC against terrorist groups in the past has created controversy from nationalists.
In the mid-1980s when the RUC mounted several major "super grass" cases there was also criticism from the Dublin government of the day.
According to Garda sources there are unlikely to be any substantive charges brought against any of the major figures in the Omagh bombing without the help of accomplices. There is no sign of any such development.
More than 40 people were arrested in the Republic and a similar number in the North. In all about 50 or 60 people were probably connected to the bomb plot, with about five actually involved in priming and delivering the bomb.
Three men, two in the car carrying the bomb and the other in a getaway car, drove from south Armagh to Omagh.
One of these was in his late teens at the time and came from north Armagh. The other two were in their 30s and from Dundalk and south Armagh.
The man and woman who directed the bombing are still said to be the leaders of the "Real IRA" group. This has continued recruiting and has imported an unknown amount of arms into this State in the past year.
It was responsible for the attempted bomb and rocket attacks on security force targets in Northern Ireland in the last fortnight.
Claims that these attacks were the work of the Continuity IRA group were ruses.
It appears the group is intent on carrying out attacks on the security forces in the North. There are also indications that it continues to receive support from former Provisional IRA members in the Republic.
Weapons discovered by gardai in Co Offaly in January are understood to have come from a person who has control of a Provisional IRA arms dump and who wished to hand the weapons over to the dissidents.