Mr. Michael Finucane:

The standard varies. Until the Supreme Court issued the Ramseyer decision in 2006, no one could go into a coroners' court nationwide and assert a right to information in advance of an inquest. Therefore, it depended on whose court one was in. In the case in question, I was dealing with the acting coroner for County Offaly, who refused to give me any information. That would not have happened in Dublin. I do not think it would have happened in a number of other coroners' districts around the country. I know that in other areas of the country at the moment, coroners are not opening inquests or investigating deaths pending the full outcome of criminal proceedings. That has become a matter of dispute between myself and other lawyers on the one hand, and the coroner charged with the investigation on the other hand. I do not think that practice would be adopted in Dublin. All of that has to be set against the background that Dublin has the largest concentration of people in the country. As there are 1.5 million people living in Dublin, there are more deaths and there is a need for better resourced and a more well-established system. I suppose that has to be taken into account as well. However, there is no reason certain basic minimum standards should not be adopted within that framework. I am afraid my opinion would be that such standards are not being applied uniformly on a nationwide basis.