The Irish Fishermen’s Organisation has called on the Department of Justice to provide funding to ensure human bones found off the southeast coast are sent for DNA testing.
The organisation was responding to reports this week that budgetary constraints have prevented DNA testing of the skull and two femurs (thigh bones) which had been found by fishermen working along the Waterford and Wexford coastlines.
The bodies of nine fishermen lost in this area in recent years had still not been recovered, much to the distress of their families, the organisation’s secretary Caitlín Uí Aodha has said.
Two of the nine missing fishermen were on board the Maggie B, which sank off the southeast coast in March 2006.
Five missing fishermen were on board the Père Charles and two on the Honeydew II, which sank off the southeast coast in January 2007.
The fishermen’s group said that if the bones had been found on land “every effort would be made to identify them”.
