Gardaí have confirmed that skeletal remains found on the road between Midleton and Whitegate in east Cork on Monday are those of 47-year-old Kieran Quilligan, who had been missing from Cork city since last September.
His death is now being treated as murder.
Mr Quilligan's disappearance was being treated as a missing person's case, although at the time he went missing gardaí expressed fears for his well-being.
Considerable garda resources were given to the investigation.
RTÉ News understands that Mr Quilligan's remains were identified from DNA samples following a post-mortem examination on his body.
His family have been informed.
Gardaí are continuing to appeal to people with information to contact them at the Bridewell Garda Station in Cork, where the investigation is based.
Searches have been carried out in areas of scrubland and woods near where Mr Quilligan's remains were discovered in east Cork on Monday afternoon.
Garda crime scene investigators also examined the scene, which is close to Whitewell Cross.
Gardaí have not released details of the post-mortem examination, which was conducted at Cork University Hospital by the Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster.
The discovery of Mr Quilligan's remains was made by a garda with a search dog as part of a planned search of the area.
Mr Quilligan was last seen on the evening of 1 September last year, leaving a premises on Anderson's Quay in Cork in the company of another man.
Using CCTV, gardaí tracked his movements from there to St Finbarr's Place, close to St Finbarr's Cathedral and the south channel of the River Lee.
Since then, there had been no sighting of him.
Three weeks after he was last seen, the garda investigation moved to a farm at the edge of the Courtstown Industrial Estate in Little Island, more than 10km from the city in east Cork.
An extensive area of farmland and waste ground was searched. A local coastguard team conducted searches of the coastline.
Specially trained dogs and their handlers from the Civil Defence K9 team in Cork and the Search and Rescue Dog Association also assisted.
Throughout the search, members of Mr Quilligan's family maintained a vigil at the garda cordon, awaiting news.
However, that search ended without any trace of Mr Quilligan being found.
The area where Mr Quilligan's remains were found on Monday is around 25 kilometres south-east of Little Island and 35km from where Mr Quilligan was last seen on CCTV in Cork city centre.
