James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are holding this meeting in a hybrid format. Some members may be participating remotely from their offices in the Leinster House precinct. Apologies have been received from Deputy Pa Daly, who is abroad on parliamentary business, but is being substituted for by Deputy Réada Cronin. Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Senator Barry Ward send apologies. Senator Lynn Ruane may join us at a later stage. Senator Vincent Martin sends his apologies. Deputy Patrick Costello is giving a speech in the Dáil Chamber and hopes to join us later in the meeting.

The purpose of our meeting is to engage with stakeholders who made a written submission to assist the committee in the examination of the operation of the Coroner Service. Before I welcome the witnesses, I will speak on how we operate in this committee. This committee processes a significant amount of legislation. We effectively mirror the Department of Justice. We also reserve time in our diary for an elective module once a month, where we nominate a topic of interest to the committee for examination and consideration. This month's module relates to the Coroner Service, which is why the witnesses are here. I thank them for their interest and for contributing to our discussion.

I welcome Professor Denis Cusack, senior coroner for the district of Kildare; Mr. Steven Smyrl, director of Massey and King and an accredited genealogist; and Ms Nicola Morris, president of Accredited Genealogists Ireland. From the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, I welcome Ms Doireann Ansbro, head of legal and policy; and Ms Sinéad Nolan, communications manager. I also welcome Mr. Roger Murray, senior counsel, Mr. David O'Malley and Ms Doireann O'Mahony BL, barrister and practitioner, all co-authors of the recently published work, Medical Inquests. It was published to wide acclaim in recent months and represents a significant contribution to studies on the subject. We are delighted to have the three authors here and indeed all the witnesses. I think it will make for an interesting meeting.

There are some housekeeping notes at the beginning of the meeting. As always, we advise witnesses of parliamentary privilege. Witnesses and members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable, or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of the person or entity. If their statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is otherwise known as good manners. The witnesses are new to meetings in these chambers, but the reminder is for members too. I ask mobile phones to be turned to airplane mode if possible. Even though they may not be making noise, the signal can transmit and interfere with sound recordings and afterwards, it can transpire that something was missed because of interference with the signal. I ask members who are participating remotely to keep their device muted until they are speaking and to remember to unmute when they speak so that we can hear them at the right times and not hear them at the wrong times.

We have adopted a format whereby the witnesses' presentations are kept relatively short, which allows time for significant questions and answers and engagement with the committee as the meeting unfolds. Each opening statement will be limited to three minutes. I think all the witnesses have tailored their remarks accordingly. We have a clock in the top corner, if they want to keep an eye on that to help with their timekeeping. I will have to be strict on that to make the meeting flow smoothly. Once we have had an opening statement from all of the witnesses and the organisations they represent, we will have a round robin among members of the committee. Each member will have seven minutes in which to engage, including both the questions they wish to pose and the answers that the witnesses may wish to give. We will have a clock for that too. There are three members present physically and two others present virtually. Other members typically join the meeting in the course of the afternoon. We may have a second round of such questions and answers depending on available time.

I will call Professor Cusack first, followed by Mr. Smyrl, Ms Ansbro, Mr. Murray and Ms O'Mahony.

Each of our guests will have three minutes. First on my list is Professor Cusack, who is welcome to the committee. I invite him to make his presentation. I will remind him when his three minutes are up.