10th Anniversary of National DNA Database
- Published on: 26 February 2026
- Last updated on: 9 March 2026
Today marks 10 years since the creation of Ireland’s national DNA database. An event to mark the anniversary took place at Forensic Science Ireland HQ.
The database is used as an intelligence source for criminal investigations, to help find missing people and to help identify unknown people. It assisted in 180 body identifications and 29 missing persons cases in 2025
Since its establishment in 2015, the system has aided nearly 8,000 criminal investigations, primarily cases relating to burglaries, criminal damage, and robberies. It has also assisted in the investigation of more serious crimes including murders, sexual and violent offences and assaults.
The database now has over 94,000 profiles and the crime solving capacity of the database will continue to grow as the database itself grows.
The DNA Database was established under the Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Act 2014. The Act states that certain DNA samples can be taken to be added to the DNA database. Forensic Science Ireland manage the DNA database.