Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The amendment is an important administrative updating provision. It is intended to help address the increasing workload and backlog of inquests in the Dublin area. The amendment inserts a new section 13A in the principal Act. The new provision will allow the Minister, on receipt of a request from the Dublin coroner, to authorise his or her deputy coroner to conduct death investigations on inquests concurrently with the coroner for the purpose of increasing the number and progress of inquiries into deaths in the Dublin coroner district. That authorisation is given for a fixed period that must end not later than two years after the commencement of the amending provision. Under the Act as it stands, the deputy normally acts only where the coroner is absent, disqualified or incapacitated or, indeed, while the position of coroner may be vacant.

This is not, of course, a substitute for overall administrative restructuring of the national coroner system. As I mentioned in my remarks on Second Stage in this House, we must continue to examine the optimum organisation of the coroner service. It is clear that further elements of coroner structures will require significant improvement. This Bill, however, does not focus on reforming coronial law but it includes a number of immediate and necessary administrative updates, pending overall administrative reform. This amendment is one of those changes to provide much needed additional capacity in the Dublin district, which is particularly stretched for obvious demographic reasons, despite the considerable work and productivity of the Dublin coroner, Dr. Myra Cullinane, and her predecessor, Dr. Brian Farrell. I take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to them both and the teams and staff of the Dublin coroner's office.

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