The Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, met the family of missing Kildare woman, Jo Jo Dullard yesterday afternoon.
Ms Dullard was last seen in Moone, Co Kildare, in November 1995 apparently hitching a lift towards Carlow.
Renewing calls for a full scale Garda search of the area, her sister Mrs Mary Phelan said that she accepts Ms Dullard is dead but the family wants to find her body and bury it in the family plot.