A Sinn Fein MP who is a solicitor has said he is embarrassed to admit he was confused about the coronavirus regulations at the time of Bobby Storey's funeral.
John Finucane accepted "mistakes were made" in the staging of the huge republican funeral in west Belfast.
He attended the funeral and was among the 24 Sinn Fein politicians interviewed by police over alleged breaches of Covid-19 restrictions.
The North Belfast MP insisted the party's apology for the events of June 30 last year was not a "half apology".
He said the party recognised the wider public mood about the scenes that unfolded.
"We have apologised for the hurt that was caused and hurt isn't caused unless mistakes were made, so I accept that," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme.
"Mistakes were made and I think that's very clear, and I think that there are those who will struggle to accept our apology for that, and I totally understand that."
Mr Finucane, who works as a solicitor, said there was a "level of confusion" over the regulations.
"As potentially embarrassing as this sounds, I was not exempt from that level of confusion on the detail of the regulations at that particular time," he added.
Mr Finucane said Sinn Fein was not taking the Public Prosecution Service's decision not to prosecute the 24 politicians as "vindication".
"This is not a diluted apology, it's not a half apology," he added.
"For me, it's very simple and straightforward - the funeral and the undermining of that (public health) message caused hurt, particularly to other families who had lost loved ones, that is what we're apologising for, we are not apologising if somebody felt a certain way.
"The funeral resulted in confidence being damaged in the public health message, that shouldn't have happened and I don't think that there's anything controversial about us accepting that."
