Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

Would the Minister agree that the coroner service is the Cinderella of the legal services? The manner in which the service is treated is disgraceful. The report of the working group on the coroner service was published in 2000. The Minister and his predecessor promised new legislation but he now tells us this has been delayed. We must now wait and see when it will be produced and in the meantime operate under the old Coroners Act 1962.

Last month we saw where a person engaged in alternative therapy refused to attend the inquest on one of her patients. In 2001, the same person had refused to attend the inquest on another of her patients who died. The only penalty in the case of non-attendance is €6.35 and, effectively, a person intimately and profoundly involved in the life and death of a citizen is not obliged to attend the inquest on the death of that person. Does the Minister agree that this is an outrage with which he should deal? Witnesses so intimately involved must be compelled to attend inquests.

As the Minister and any of us who have attended coroners' courts know, all coroners can do is examine the physical and medical circumstances surrounding the death. They cannot investigate the circumstances themselves. This means the inquest is a limited procedure. The recommendation was for a broader and more comprehensive procedure, but the issue has been lying idle for the past five years with nothing done about it, which is a scandal.

The State Laboratory has never had adequate resources to carry out tests on time. This means that loved ones waiting for an inquest on those who died must wait longer because the State has failed to invest resources in this area. Does the Minister agree that the coroner service is the Cinderella of the legal service? This is not good enough.

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