Ms Mary Hurley:

I thank the Chairman and members of the Joint Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht for inviting the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government here today to discuss the policy issues arising from the Cemetery Management Bill 2013. I am accompanied today by Mr. David Dalton, principal officer in the Department’s community division, with specific responsibility for, inter alia, local government community services and the regulation of local authority burial grounds.

The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has policy and legislative responsibility for the regulation of local authority burial grounds. This responsibility covers a range of technical aspects related to the operation of burial grounds but does not extend to matters related to the funeral industry generally. The main legislative provisions in respect of burial grounds are contained in the Public Health (Ireland) Act 1878, as amended by Part 6 of the Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act 1948, the Local Government Act 1994 and in the rules and regulations for the Regulation of Burial Grounds 1888 and the relevant amending regulations.

The legislation provides that local authorities are burial boards for their respective functional areas. They have sole responsibility for providing, managing, regulating and controlling burial grounds in their areas. In this respect, there has been gradual devolution of functions from central to local government over time, with almost all functions relating to burial grounds exercised locally by local authorities at this stage.

The underpinning legislation has been in place for some time, but it has served us well and continues to do so. While there have been calls to review the legislation in recent times, it has remained unchanged as the changes proposed were outside the Department’s policy and legislative remit. I believe that this is also the case with the matter before the committee.

The Dublin Cemeteries Committee was established as a body corporate by the The Dublin Cemeteries Committee Act 1970 and is a registered charity for tax purposes. It currently owns and operates a number of cemeteries in Dublin city and county and has incorporated a number of limited liability companies for the purposes of carrying on certain ancillary funeral related businesses. A Supreme Court decision in 2009 reaffirmed the capacity of the committee in this regard. Neither the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government nor Dublin City Council have any function in relation to, or any direct control over, the operation, management, regulation or otherwise of the Dublin cemetery committee or, for that matter, the business of any other private cemetery operator.

As outlined in the explanatory memorandum, the Bill has been introduced primarily for the purposes of regulating competition. At its heart, therefore, the Bill seeks to address a market regulation and competition matter in the funeral industry and to level the playing field between private businesses. The Department has no policy responsibility in this regard and the proposal to vest responsibility for such a regulator in the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, therefore, is not consistent, in our view, with the scope of the Minister’s responsibility vis-à-visthe operation and management of burial grounds.

As stated, the primary purpose of the Bill is to provide for the establishment of a cemeteries regulator. First, there is no policy or other need for a cemeteries regulator in respect of local authority or ecclesiastical authority burial grounds which constitute the majority of burial grounds in the State. Second, the introduction of a regulator for such a limited number of operators and at a time when Government is actively pursuing measures to reduce the number of State agencies and control the number of State employees would appear to run counter to Government policy to reduce the number of such authorities. Third, a regulator would require a staffing structure and other necessary administrative supports, all giving rise to a potentially significant cost to the Exchequer. Given the clear purpose of the proposed regulator to regulate competition between private businesses, it appears to duplicate the statutory remit of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. Indeed, the commission has responded to a complaint of anti-competitive practices by Dublin Cemeteries Committee and made recommendations in this regard.

I do not believe that the competition matters the Bill seeks to address come within the policy or legislative responsibility of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. For this reason, I have not dealt with the technical or legal issues and other matters of concern arising from the Bill. However, I am happy to detail these briefly if it would be of assistance to the committee as part of the broader discussion on the Bill today. Given the breadth of policy and technical issues arising from the matter we are here to discuss, I believe a wider consideration by other Departments of the proposals reflected in the Bill is also imperative.

I thank the committee once again for its invitation to participate in this discussions. I hope the foregoing will assist the committee in its deliberations and both my colleague, David Dalton, and I will be happy to deal with any queries that might arise in the course of subsequent discussions and which come within the remit of the Department.