Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We are trying to do the same thing as the Government only in a different way. The Government's wording creates the possibility that a coroner could go against the family's wishes and decide not to hold an inquest, but that would not be possible with our wording. Equally, the Government's wording creates a situation where it is possible for the coroner to start the ball rolling in terms of having a discussion about not having an inquest, but the goal here, as the Minister said on Second Stage, is to avoid a situation where a bereaved family might find itself having to participate in an inquest which it might not wish for in certain circumstances, and that it is not to give coroners a route out of holding maternal death inquests. However, that is an unintended consequence of how the Government has drafted the Bill. With our wording, only the family can precipitate any conversation about not having an inquest.

A final consequence of the Government's wording is that it leaves too wide a gap through which deaths that appear to be natural but are not could slip, meaning inquests that should be held are not held. If the goal is to protect bereaved families from having to go through a process which, on the basis of the all the facts of the case, is not necessary, our wording achieves that while the Government's does not. We are trying to put safeguards in place for women. Let us ensure we do that and leave no space for it not to happen.