Nearly £9 million has been spent on the latest police inquiry into Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane's murder, it was revealed tonight.
The cost of former Scotland Yard chief Lord Stevens' third inquiry into a loyalist assassination shrouded by allegations of security force collaboration was branded a waste of money by the lawyer's family.
And unionists have called for the seven-year investigation to be brought to an immediate halt.
Ian Paisley Jr, a DUP representative on the Northern Ireland Policing Board, said: "There's been absolutely no public benefit from the inquiry or the money spent on it."
Stevens III was launched in 1999 to re-examine claims that special branch and military intelligence assisted the Ulster Defence Association unit who shot Mr Finucane at his north Belfast home ten years earlier.
It confirmed in April 2003 that rogue police officers and soldiers plotted with loyalist terrorists to murder Catholics during the 1980s, including the Finucane killing.
Now the Northern Ireland Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde — who once ran the inquiry — has disclosed how much has been spent on it so far.
Sir Hugh also confirmed it was being scaled back and taken over by a new unit given a £30m budget to examine more than 3,000 unsolved killings during 30 years of violence.
He said: "The cost of the Stevens III Inquiry to date is £8,916,936.
"However, it is anticipated that the cost of the Inquiry will significantly reduce as the investigative capacity of the Stevens Team is being reduced from 30 to 11 officers.
"The current status of the Inquiry is that as of February 2006 all outstanding matters are being handed back to C8, the Historical Enquiries Team."
Stevens III loyalist hitman Ken Barrett was convicted of the Finucane murder and six others for handling terrorist documents, Sir Hugh stressed.
The Public Prosecution Service is also studying 27 files on police officers and members of the security services arising from the investigation.