Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a very difficult issue that has affected many families over the last number of months in the north Dublin region. I refer to the remains of loved ones being released from the coroner service following a post mortem. Post mortems are required following the death of some people but arising from what appears to be the temporary closure of the mortuary in Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown, there is a backlog and hence a significant delay in the releasing of bodies by the coroner service, which is based in Whitehall in my own constituency. This is something that affects people right across north Dublin and I have been contacted by families from right across the area.

The challenge this presents is, in the first instance, to funeral directors who are trying to manage the progression of remains to allow families to bury them peacefully. It also presents a challenge for family members themselves. Ireland has a custom of being able to put people to rest with relative ease but instead of a two- or three-day delay following a post mortem, in some cases remains have been in a mortuary for more than two weeks. This causes real anxiety when families are waiting for two or two and a half weeks to bury their loved ones. Often people will have travelled home from abroad to be with their loved one before he or she passed away. They then have to remain here for much longer than they would have expected. As I said, these delays are a difficulty for funeral undertakers, for families and for people travelling but especially for partners, husbands or wives who cannot lay their loved one to rest and move on.

I do not expect the Minister of State to have all of the answers this evening. The coroner service is the responsibility of the local authority. I was a member of Dublin City Council for ten years and am very proud of the service provided by the coroner. If there are issues with resources or with adjoining facilities not being available, we need to put in place some sort of contingency or redundancy plan. I understand that the facility at Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown has been reopened but we must have some contingency in the system that will allow for an overflow.

A funeral director told me that there were four remains being dealt with each day and that as a result, one family was told that it was number 18 or 19 on the list. They are not terms that any family wants to hear following the death of a loved one. I ask the Minister of State to bring my concerns back to the Government to try to ascertain what is happening and why families are experiencing these very unreasonable delays.

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