The Government will seek expert advice about undertaking DNA testing on the five unidentified victims of the 1981 Stardust fire if a licence for exhumation is obtained, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has signalled.
In a letter to the Stardust Victims' Committee, Mr Ahern said before DNA testing could proceed, an exhumation licence, conditional on receiving the consent of the families of the five unidentified victims, must first be obtained from the local authority.
If authorisation is granted, the Department of Justice will seek expert advice on the "feasibility of such tests and how best they might be carried out", according to Mr Ahern.
The committee said last night that all five families had agreed to have the remains in the communal plot at Sutton cemetery exhumed and will sign consent forms provided by Fingal County Council this week. A spokeswoman for the committee, Antoinette Keegan, described Mr Ahern's letter as a very significant development in their long-running campaign for answers in relation to the 1981 fire in the Stardust night club in Artane, Dublin, in which 48 young people died.
"We've been told over the years by the Government that DNA wouldn't be possible because the bodies were so badly burnt. We have always argued that if the Russian tsars could be identified, having been burnt 80 years ago, that these five remains should be exhumed and tested," said Ms Keegan,
Fingal County Council said an "application for an exhumation licence would not be considered unless, and until, all families whose relatives' remains are interred in the plot gave their full consent. . . Our priority is to respect the wishes of the relatives of all those interred in our burial grounds." The plot, where possible exhumation may now take place, purportedly bears the remains of Richard Bennett, Michael Ffrench, Murtagh Kavanagh, Éamon Loughman and Paul Wade.
Last night, Terry Kavanagh, whose brother Murtagh died in the fire, said the willingness to explore DNA testing was of immense relief to families. We feel like we should be respecting his [ Murtagh's] memory. After 25 years, he shouldn't be disregarded any longer.
"The DNA testing would bring us peace of mind. It wasn't available to us 25 years ago and as a result we have had to walk from one grave to another never knowing which was Murtagh's," she said.
Last month the Birmingham Forensic Science Laboratory analysed pathologist reports and evidence and concluded that DNA testing some 25 years after the fire was possible.