Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have had a fair few Topical Issues taken since I was elected five years and that is one of the shortest printed responses I have ever seen. That is a desperate response. I can see from the Minister of State's face and from the way she spoke that she is sympathetic and that she understands the problem here. She did not write this. Officials in the Department of Justice had input into this. I ask her to have a word with them. This is not a good enough response for us to go back to those families with.

The Minister of State will be aware that we are not asking her or the Department and her colleague, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, to intervene with coroners and say that they need to hurry up. That is not the issue. The Department appoints the coroners. There are two staff in Cork, 24 in Dublin and the former has a quarter of the cases the latter has. They cannot keep up. How could they?

I believe the Minister of State is sympathetic. I ask her to go back to her Department and say this is not a good enough situation and more staff are needed in Cork. I ask her to work on that.

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