The Police Ombudsman has said she has no intention of resigning and insisted that every part of her report is backed up by facts and documents.
Mrs Nuala O'Loan said that the Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, had displayed judgement that was so "seriously flawed that as a result of that the chances of convicting and detaining the Omagh bombers have been seriously reduced", but did not call for his resignation. "That is not my place" she said.
Mrs O'Loan was asked whether she would resign if her recommendations were not followed through. "I have no intention of resigning," she said.
"Everything that is in this report is backed by documents, statements, we have the evidence to back up every single thing we say. Where I say to you that the senior investigating officer says the investigation stopped, I have that. I can stand over this ," she said.
Mrs O'Loan's Director of Investigations, Commander David Wood, rejected suggestions that as his team did not have experience in anti-terrorist work they were not competent to investigate the handling of the bombing.
In his long career as a detective he had "been engaged in intelligence-led activity for a large part". Mr Wood said much of the Ombudsman's report was based on an internal RUC review of the Omagh investigation which had been conducted by "thorough and experienced" RUC officers.
The Ombudsman said the Chief Constable's pledges to the families of victims "that no stone would be left unturned have not been given effect in the subsequent investigation".
This was in part due to inadequate resourcing - "there simply weren't the officers to do the job". She also cited leadership of the investigation and the failure to act expeditiously on the recommendations of the review report.
"I have no doubt that the possibility of a successful investigation could have been enhanced even after the Omagh bomb review report" had all the recommendations of that report been expeditiously implemented, she said.