The Court of Appeal has made a declaration that conclusions in the report of Seán Guerin, which were critical of former minister Alan Shatter, were reached in breach of fair procedures and constitutional and natural justice.
The court made an order for costs in favour of Mr Shatter, but put a stay on this pending the outcome of any appeal to the Supreme Court.
The court ruled last year that Mr Guerin's report examining how garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe's complaints were dealt with - published in May 2014 - made highly critical findings about Mr Shatter in breach of his Constitutional rights.
The Appeal Court refused to make a number of other orders sought by Mr Shatter.
It said it was not appropriate to order the quashing of Mr Guerin's conclusions in relation to Mr Shatter.
It also refused to require Mr Guerin to deliver an amended copy of his report to the Taoiseach.
Appeal Court president Mr Justice Sean Ryan said it seemed to him the consequences of the court's judgment were now a matter between Mr Shatter and the State.
The judge said he believed the State had an obligation to see Mr Shatter's constitutional rights were vindicated.
But he said he left the mode of achievement of that, to be negotiated and agreed.
The judge said that if there was no agreement between the parties, the option of returning to the courts was available.
Speaking after the judgment, Mr Shatter said he expected the State would now vindicate his Constitutional rights.
He said he thought it was regrettable that after the publication of the report from the O'Higgins Commission - set up after a recommendation in the Guerin report - that a hearing in the Court of Appeal had been necessary.
He said he hoped this would bring an end to the litigation in this case.
Mr Shatter also said the first he heard of the "bizarre conduct" of the HSE and Tusla in relation to the case of Sgt McCabe was on RTÉ's Prime Time programme.
He said he thought Mr Justice Peter Charleton was an excellent judge and he wished him well.
He said he was reflecting on whether he had anything he might submit to the Disclosure Inquiry that would assist Mr Justice Charleton but that he was not going to get into any detail of that today.
Mr Shatter said Mr Guerin had failed to apply fair procedures and had failed to give him an opportunity to defend himself, adding that his Constitutional rights were violated.
He said since May of last year, the O'Higgins commission report had been available, which had basically discredited the conclusions reached by Mr Guerin against him.
Mr Shatter said he was very pleased with the court's decision and very pleased to get an order for costs.
He said he did not believe he should have had to spend almost three years of his life doing battle in the court to establish that when there are allegations made against an individual they are entitled to be heard in defence of them and welcomed the statement by Mr Justice Ryan that the State had an obligation to vindicate his rights.
The former justice minister said it was between himself and the State, effectively Taoiseach Enda Kenny, as to how that occurred.
He said the report remained in circulation and hoped it would be withdrawn without delay, adding that he did not believe taxpayers' money or public funds should be further incurred in any further court exercises.
Mr Shatter has called on Mr Kenny to withdraw the Guerin report and come before the Dáil to confirm that its findings were mistaken.
He called on the Taoiseach to withdraw the report from circulation and claimed that he had yet to acknowledge on the Dáil record that the conclusions were unjustified and asked him to do so at the earliest opportunity.
