Institutional Burials Act 2022
Forensic excavation and recovery and post-recovery analysis of human remains | ||
35. (1) A Director shall ensure that a contract or arrangement made under section 19 for the forensic excavation and recovery of human remains and post-recovery analysis is made with an appropriately qualified person and shall require the person perform the activity concerned in accordance with— | ||
(a) international standards and best practice applicable to such activity, and | ||
(b) where that person is a member of a class of professionals engaged in that activity, any regulatory requirements governing the profession and having regard to any standards and relevant guidelines applicable to the activity of the profession concerned. | ||
(2) A Director shall arrange for the forensic excavation and recovery of human remains and, on completion of that recovery, he or she shall arrange for the carrying out of a process (in this Act referred to as “post-recovery analysis”) consisting of— | ||
(a) where the remains of more than one person are co-mingled, the sorting of the remains into individual sets of remains as far as possible, | ||
(b) that part of forensic testing involving the examination and analysis of, and the carrying out of biochemical or other scientific tests and techniques on, the remains to establish— | ||
(i) the condition of the remains, | ||
(ii) if possible, a biological profile (including the sex, age at death and any other identifying characteristics) of the person to whom the remains relate, | ||
(iii) if possible, the circumstances and cause of death, and | ||
(iv) any other information that can be extracted relating to the remains concerned, | ||
and | ||
(c) subject to subsection (3), the preparation of a general report documenting— | ||
(i) the circumstances of the discovery of the human remains in the land concerned, | ||
(ii) the forensic excavation and recovery of those human remains, | ||
(iii) the outcome of the activities referred to in paragraph (b), and | ||
(iv) whether a notification was made under subsection (2) of section 36 to a member of An Garda Síochána and the coroner referred to in that subsection and, if so, whether the evidence related to subsection (1)(a) or (b) of that section. | ||
(3) Nothing in the report referred to in subsection (2)(c) shall contain details that are likely to lead to the identification of individual human remains. | ||
(4) A Director shall, as soon as practicable after the completion of a report prepared under subsection (2)(c), cause the report to be published on a website maintained by the Government, the relevant Minister concerned or the Director. |