TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has said he hopes “justice is arrived at” following the search of a woodland area as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Deirdre Jacob.

The search concluded today after a third dat of a major search operation in a remote wooded area of Co Kildare.

Investigators are searching almost three acres of land, with search parties expected to be on site for up to three weeks.

Deirdre Jacob was last seen on 28 July 1998 near her home in Newbridge, Co Kildare. She is one of at least six women who vanished in the east of the country in the 1990s.

The family of another missing woman, Jo Jo Dullard, say they are praying the developments in Deirdre’s case will bring about answers for them. 

Speaking about the investigation, the Taoiseach said:

“Our hearts go out to the families of the missing women involved. It is heart rendering, it is very, very sad, those families haven’t had closure.

“I just hope the gardaí can bring this further and advance these investigations further and work to bring closure to the families concerned and make sure that justice is arrived at.

“It does illustrate the gardaí is continuing to work on these cases, is not giving up on these cases, thats reassuring to the families, on one level but on another level it has been an extraordinary length of time that these families have endured and I really feel it is very tough on them and traumatic. And it must be very difficult at the moment for them to have to go through this as well.”

Gardaí upgraded her disappearance to a murder investigation in 2018 and as a result of the renewed focus on the case new witnesses have come forward. As part of the cold case review the file and previous statements have also been re-examined by detectives.

During this re-examination they re-interviewed witnesses who were also part of the original file – one element of that re-examination was the movements around a woodland some 16 kilometres south of the town of Newbridge.

During this re-examination and interviews “credible information” was developed and that has led gardaí to woodland to Usk Little on the Wicklow and Kildare border.