The extent of the control which the Chief Constable of Kent, Mr David Phillips, will exercise over the inquiry into the death of the Lurgan solicitor Ms Rosemary Nelson will be raised by the Taoiseach at his meeting with the British Prime Minister tomorrow night.
Mr Ahern is due to meet Mr Blair on the fringes of the EU summit in Berlin for discussions on Anglo-Irish matters as the dead line for setting up the Northern executive looms on Friday week.
A spokesman for Mr Ahern said last night he had already sought clarification from the British authorities about the role to be played by Mr Phillips and a representative of the FBI in the investigation.
Mr Ahern said on RTE's This Week programme yesterday that "it is absolutely essential that the inquiry be seen to be fully independent and transparent and when I meet the Prime Minister, hopefully on Tuesday night, I will be making that point very clear".
He added that human rights groups, such as Amnesty International, had put it to him that the Chief Constable should not just be supervising an internal RUC investigation. "I understand the FBI are going to use their own team and I think, similarly, that the Chief Constable should use his team. There is some doubt about whether he is or isn't and I think he should."
While he was in the US last week, the British Prime Minister stated in the House of Commons that the investigation into the murder by Mr Phillips, assisted by the FBI, would be independent and its remit would be very wide.
Government sources said last night it was absolutely essential, at this delicate time politically, that the investigation would not just be independent, but be seen to be independent. Anything less would be unhelpful to Sinn Fein as the deadline approached for a solution to the decommissioning logjam. It would also be essential for the whole standing of the RUC as the Patton Commission was completing its report on the reform of the force.
