Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This groups of amendments effectively inserts into the Bill a further provision for situations where a designated officer of GSOC is assisting the coroner, in place of a Garda, in a death which is also the subject of a GSOC investigation under Part 4 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005.

Section 33 of the Bill already inserts a new section 101A into the Garda Síochána Act 2005, to make express provision for a GSOC designated officer to perform the assistance functions expressly set out for a garda in the Coroners Act 1962, and provide such other assistance to the coroner as would normally be provided by a Garda, in relation to the inquest.

The proposed amendments add a new subsection in new section 101A of the Garda Síochána Act to add, for the avoidance of doubt, that while performing such functions, or providing such assistance, the GSOC designated officer continues to have all the powers, immunities and privileges, and all the duties, of a member of An Garda Síochána whether statutory or common law. Such immunities and privileges should be expressly provided to avoid any possible risk of purely technical legal defects in the officer, for example, entering on private property to serve a summons.

It is a technical amendment related to renumbering.

Amendment No. 15 is made on the advice of Parliamentary Counsel, for consistency with other provisions of the Bill. The proposed wording as amended, "inquiry by a coroner into a death", has a broader scope than the current wording "inquiry by a coroner into the circumstances of a death", which could be open to a restrictive interpretation.

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Amendment No. 16 is the last of the group. As I have already outlined, it adds a new subsection to the new section 101A of the Garda Síochána Act to add, for the avoidance of any doubt, that while performing statutory functions of assistance to the coroner inquiring into a death, or otherwise assisting the coroner in relation to the inquest into that death, in place of a Garda a designated officer of GSOC will have all of the powers, immunities, privileges and otherwise and, of course, will be subject to all of the duties of a member of An Garda Síochána.

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