Dr. Niamh McCullagh:

The Deputy asked about recommendations relating to unidentified remains. This is where the importance of the recovery strategy and post-mortem examination of remains really comes into play where one is essentially gathering as much information as possible about that individual such as his or her age at death. There is new technology that allows one to assess the gender of infant remains. These techniques and technologies are developing all the time. A DNA sample would be extracted so that if other individuals come forward, these remains can be re-associated with the family and, ultimately, buried as an individual insofar as is possible but an individual about whom we know as much as possible.

The population of Tuam is regarded as a closed population because one has a list of deaths that occurred and ages of death. It may be possible, although we do not know because we have not excavated or recovered any of these remains, to identify the broad age range, associate those back to the burial register and get a more complete picture. However, it is all essentially based on being allowed to undertake forensic recovery to give those things as much chance of being successful as possible.