FIRST COUSINS OF children believed to be buried at the site of the former mother and baby home in Tuam will soon be eligible to participate in the identification programme.

The legislation, which is currently being drafted, comes after a development in forensic science that means DNA from a first cousin may be sufficient to identify remains.

It was previously thought that the variation in shared DNA was too great as the common ancestor is the grandparent rather than the parent.

This made it more difficult to draw conclusions about a familial link as, at the lower levels, first cousins were indistinguishable from more distant relatives, Children’s Minister Norma Foley explained at the time.

This is not an issue for commercial genealogical matching services, such as Ancestry DNA, because they compare DNA between living persons and good quantities of non-degraded DNA are available.

The minister today announced that the government is working to change the Institutional Burials Act 2022 to be in line with the latest forensic research.

Foley said in a statement today: “I know that the Identification Programme is very important for people who believe they have family members buried at the site of the former Mother and Baby institution in Tuam.

“Forensic Science Ireland recently informed me of new scientific developments since the enactment of the legislation that allow for DNA matching of sufficient quality to support the inclusion of first cousins in an Identification Programme.

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“I understand that there are first cousins who are interested in participating in the Tuam Identification Programme so I, and the Government, were keen to move quickly on this when the scientific advice was updated.”

Cabinet today gave approval to draft the amendments to the 2022 Act. A statement from the Department of Children, Disability and Equality said it will to introduce them to the Houses of Oireachtas “as soon as possible”.