Institutional Burials Act 2022

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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.