Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

On a second matter, the introduction of this legislation highlights the cumbersome nature of getting Bills through the House generally. I do not point a finger at the Minister whom Deputies pointed at enough today when discussing another matter. Despite agreement on the need for reform, the House does not appear to be able to establish a procedure which would allow reform Bills to be put through the House in a reasonable timeframe. A working group issued a clear report on this issue more than five years ago. In addition, Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights which has been incorporated in domestic law contains clear requirements in this regard. Despite these developments, the House is still unable to get it together. In the case of coroners legislation, a new and comprehensive Bill was promised in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. Perhaps we should re-examine the whole process by which we deal with reform Bills, particularly in cases where there is no political disagreement on what needs to be done. Although the reasons for delay may be complexities in the law and a desire to ensure the House produces good legislation, given the goodwill among parties on this matter, would it not be possible to find a better way of expediting reform legislation?

While the issues highlighted in the Bill introduced by Deputy Rabbitte are of extreme urgency, many other related issues are sufficiently urgent as to warrant reform. The Coroners Act is 44 years old. We need to address a series of other issues, specifically the reporting of deaths and the obligations on coroners and others. We must also deal with issues relating to the body of the deceased and the duty, as recommended by the working group, which should be placed on funeral directors to ensure a certificate of death is procurable or that clearance has been obtained from the coroner to bury the body.

Statutory requirements are needed on post-mortems. We must provide in legislation that the jurisdiction of the coroner includes the investigation not only of the medical cause of death but also the circumstances surrounding it, while at the same time treating with care the line between civil and criminal liability. Mandatory inquests should be extended to include, at a minimum, circumstances in which a death occurs in Garda custody, an issue which has arisen in the Rossiter case. An unexplained death is particularly difficult for relatives and we must make stronger legislative provisions governing their role and rights. Let us, therefore, agree to place the Bill on the Statute Book tonight.

While I congratulate the Labour Party on introducing this legislation and endorse its efforts, let us not forget the other, broader issues we should try to deal with it in the Statute Book.

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