The Taoiseach has written to the families of the Stardust victims saying the remains of five unidentified victims of the Stardust fire in 1981 are to be exhumed in an effort to have them identified.
In the letter sent yesterday the Taoiseach said the Department of Justice will initiate and oversee a process leading to the identification of the five victims.
The letter confirms approval has been granted for the families' request for DNA testing on the remains so that they can be re-interred in individual graves.
The five victims are Richard Bennett, Michael Ffrench, Murtagh (Murt) Kavanagh, Éamon Loughman and Paul Wade. They are buried side by side in a common plot in St Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton, north Dublin. The five were among 48 who died in the early hours of February 14th, 1981 when fire engulfed the Stardust ballroom in Artane.
The families have been told in the letter sent to their solicitor, Greg O'Neill, that the Garda will give its full support in the logistics of the process and will be assisted by the Forensic Science Laboratory with specialists and analytical input from the UK. The cost of the process will be borne by the Department of Justice including all analytical expenses, as well as the exhumation and reburial expenses, the families have been told.
The reburial expenses are to include the costs of private funerals following identification which will be agreed with the next of kin of each of the five victims in due course.
The Taoiseach's department has said they expect to set out a timetable for the process shortly and has promised to keep the next of kin of the five informed of every stage.
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach has told the families that a full response to their call for a new public inquiry will not be made for three weeks due to the complexity of the issues.
Immediate family members of each of the five victims who were never formally identified have indicated their willingness to provide DNA samples against which the remains of the deceased could be checked.