Budgetary constraints are believed to be preventing DNA testing of bones found off the southeast coast. A skull and two femurs (thigh bones) were found in 2010 and 2011. They have been examined by a now-retired Garda detective and forensic scientist.
The bones, found by fishermen working along the Waterford and Wexford coastlines, are believed to have belonged to white men aged over 30 and about 5ft 10in tall. They are believed to have been in the sea for between two and eight years, as was the skull.
Gerry Kealy, a former detective, forensic scientist and a council member of the British Association of Human Identification, believes they might belong to fishermen who drowned when three trawlers sank off the southeast coast in 2006 and 2007, with the loss of nine men whose bodies were never found.
DNA testing which can be done in England could provide identification by comparing DNA samples with the DNA of relatives of the lost men. However, Mr Kealy’s application to the Garda for funding – at a cost of between €500 and €12,000 – was rejected for budgetary reasons, he said.