A new report on the former site of the Mother and Baby Home in Tuam has said individual identification of remains found there is unlikely without "significant investigation."

The Children's Minister Katherine Zappone has published the Expert Technical Group Report on the site.

Earlier this year, the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation (MBHCOI) identified human remains in 17 out of 20 chambers discovered in an elongated structure within the boundaries of what is currently referred to as the memorial garden.

But the technical report warns: "Individual identification of remains here is unlikely without further significant investigation.

"The commingled state of individuals makes it particularly challenging to isolate the skeletal remains of a single individual.

Members of the public pay their respects at the grounds where an unmarked mass grave was found containing the remains of nearly 800 infants who died at the Bon Secours mother-and-baby home in Tuam Co Galway | Image: Laura Hutton/RollingNews.ie

"The risk of destruction to human remains themselves, in the pursuit of DNA, also poses a range of ethical questions.

"In a collective interment scenario, a collective identity is potentially all that is possible."

The report also identifies five possible options for managing the site and responding to the discovery of the remains there.

The department says the options are explored and presented "in the context of internationally accepted best practice."

• Memorialisation: an option that may be adopted in its own right but also as a result of any further option or action undertaken on site.
• Exhumation of known human remains: whereby human remains are exhumed to an alternative location with no further investigation or analysis.
• Forensic excavation and recovery of known human remains: a full forensic control and methodology to recover the remains identified to date by previous excavations. Engineering and Health and Safety consultations indicate that excavation here would be possible but will require a considered approach and significant ground preparations. Full analysis of the remains could be conducted at a post excavation stage.
• Forensic excavation and recovery of known human remains with further evaluation/excavation of other areas of interest: the geophysical survey conducted over the entire site illustrates that there are further subsurface anomalies outside of the memorial garden. This would include the recovery of remains identified in the memorial garden and any further human remains identified at other locations.
• Forensic excavation of total available area: the most intrusive excavation covering 100% of the available site. All known human remains would be recovered and all other anomalies would be investigated. This is the most exhaustive approach with potential to expose archaeological features.