GARDA COMMISSIONER DREW Harris has said the force may look into acquiring a full-time cadaver dog in future to avoid being reliant on other police forces when searching for bodies.  

Speaking to reporters at Garda Headquarters this morning, Harris was asked if the force would benefit from having a dog available to help search for bodies at all times. 

At the moment, An Garda Síochána makes use of a dog from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). 

“We will look to see in time should we introduce a cadaver dog ourselves,” Harris said, “because we don’t want to be entirely reliant on others, but others might rely on us then if we have that dog available.” 

But he also noted how much effort is needed to train dogs to search for bodies and how rarely such dogs are needed.

“On these islands, there’s a very small number of these dogs,” Harris said. 

He said that cadaver dogs are “thankfully” rarely used. 

“I think in my tenure here that we’ve used these dogs on about three occasions. 

“A cadaver dog is not out working every day in the same way that a drugs or firearms or money dog would be. It’s a very specialist resource.

“It’s not a usual thing that we would need a cadaver dog.”

The question was put to Harris in light of concerns raised by Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan yesterday about how long it took gardaí to discover the body of Tina Satchwell, who was murdered by her husband Richard Satchwell and buried under the stairs in their home in Cork. 

“It obviously would be preferable if we had a cadaver dog,” O’Callaghan said. 

Although he conceded that PSNI’s dog Fern ultimately discovered Tina’s remains in 2023. 

O’Callaghan said the dog “probably” should have been brought to the property in 2017 at the beginning of the investigation.

“That dog is sought by many police forces in Britain as well. We got the use of the dog here and he was of much assistance.

“It obviously would be preferable if we had a cadaver dog. They have a very limited work life, cadaver dogs, they’re only operational for a period of about three years, they have to go through a very difficult training process.

“It would be preferable if the cadaver dog available on the island had been used earlier.”