Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 10:

In page 12, after line 38, to insert the following:“(2) The amendments of section 17 of the Principal Act effected by subsection (1)shall apply to the duty of a coroner to hold an inquest in relation to the death of a person that occurred before the commencement of this section only if, upon that commencement, the inquiries of the coroner into the circumstances of the death have not been completed and he or she has not decided whether to hold an inquest in relation to the death.”.

Amendment No. 10 deals with the transitional application of the changes introduced by this Bill. Certainly, it is my view that the most straightforward approach, legally, would be to provide that changes made by the Bill apply only to deaths occurring after the commencement of the legislation. However, there is a preference for a broader approach.

My amendment limits the application, only, of the changes made by section 7 of the Bill to section 17 of the principal Act dealing with mandatory inquests. It allows application, even of those provisions, to deaths occurring before the commencement of the Bill if, on commencement date, the coroner has not yet completed his or her inquiries into the death and has not yet decided whether to hold an inquest. Having consulted with the Office of the Attorney General, and having consulted with coroners, it appears that legal complications and legal uncertainty would be likely to arise if the Bill were applied to pre-commencement deaths, in respect of which the coroners had completed their inquiries and perhaps even held an inquest.

Having regard to the large numbers of natural deaths occurring in different types of State custody, such as in detention, it appears from consultation with coroners that requests to reopen such cases with a mandatory inquest now could give rise to a very significant consequence in the coroner system.