Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In 2016, I introduced the Civil Law (Missing Persons) Bill 2016. There is one part of the jigsaw missing in this area, namely, a central database for unidentified human remains that are found. We have had a number of cases in the past few years, such as the recent case of the late Denis Walsh in Galway. Mr. Walsh's remains were found in 1996 but the family was not informed until 2021 - 25 years later. There was also the case of the late Aengus Shanahan in Limerick, whose remains were found in 2001 and whose family was not notified until 2018. Joseph Reilly went missing and his remains were found in 2007 but the family was not informed until 2017. The problem is that there is no centralised database for storing information. Once human remains are found and not identified, the information stays local. There is a need for a centralised database of unidentified human remains and I am asking what action will be taken in order to establish one.

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