Charlie Flanagan

According to documents released under the 30-year-rule, the Irish Government believed that remarks by a senior British politician about solicitors who were “unduly sympathetic to the cause of the IRA” were not off the cuff but reflecting “a precise official briefing”.

Home Office minister Douglas Hogg made the remarks in the House of Commons in January 1989, three weeks before Mr Finucane was shot dead by loyalists colluding with British security forces.

The Irish Government believed at the time that Mr Hogg “acted on official advice” from the RUC via the Northern Ireland Office and the Home Office, according to the papers.

A memo from the Irish ambassador to Britain, Andrew O’Rourke, added that Mr Hogg had considered naming Mr Finucane among a list of solicitors with nationalist or loyalist sympathies, but “decided not to do so as this would be an abuse of parliamentary privilege”.

The Irish Government raised concerns with British ministers about the safety of Northern Ireland solicitors just four days before the shooting.

In response to the new documents, Mr Flanagan tweeted: “An independent inquiry must be held & chaired by an international Judicial figure of high standing.”