Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Murnane O'Connor for raising this important matter and for giving me an opportunity to provide clarity on some of the issues and to outline what has been done to date. We have plans to do further work. As the Deputy outlined, the coroners service is a network of coroners and districts throughout the country. Coroners are independent, quasi-judicial officials whose function is to investigate sudden and unexplained deaths so that a death certificate can issue. This is an important public service in particular to the next-of-kin, to friends and family of the deceased. Coroners not only provide closure for those bereaved but also provide a wider public service by identifying matters of public health and safety concerns. As Deputy Murnane O'Connor rightly outlined, my justice plan 2022 commits to bringing forward this year nationwide review proposals to deliver a service improvement plan to address identifed issues, drive innovative change, enhance customer service and improve interaction with pathology services. Until I have that review, going into more detail is not possible at the moment but I am committed to doing it by the end of the year and will engage with the Deputy when I have that report.

I will outline what has been done to date because there have been many updates of the 2000 review of the coroners service related to the strengthening of the legal provisions regarding the work of the coroner. Since then there has been significant implementation of a number of those recommendations first through the amendments to the Coroners Act 1962, in particular, the Coroners (Amendment) Act 2005, which ended the restriction on the number of medical witnesses allowed at inquests, and the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011, which provided for the restructuring and amalgamation of coronial districts and which the Deputy outlined. It has gone from 48 districts in 2000 to 38 in 2022.

The Courts and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2013 provided for legal aid and legal advice by certification by the coroner to the Legal Aid Board in respect of inquests. We then had the Coroners (Amendment) Act 2019, which clarified, strengthened and modernised the powers of a coroner in the reporting, investigation and inquest of deaths. The scope of inquires at inquest was expanded beyond being limited to establishing the medical cause of death to seeking to establish, to the extent the coroner considers necessary, the circumstances in which the death occurred. The Act also broadened the coroner's powers relating to mandatory reporting and inquests of maternal deaths, deaths in custody or childcare situations, as well as significant new powers to compel witnesses and evidence at inquest.

More recently, we have the Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020, which provided, among other items, for the assignment and appointment of temporary coroners to act simultaneously with other coroners in exceptional circumstances. This was used in part of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. There have been a great deal of change, amendments and Acts in the past decade or so to improve the overall structure and system but we are reviewing it now again to see what more we can do to ensure that it is the system that works as effectively as it can.

In regard to Carlow, Mr. Eugene O'Connor has beenin situas coroner to Laois since 1996. As deputy coroner for Carlow, he assumed the duties of coroner for Carlow upon the unexpected death of the Carlow coroner, Dr. Brendan Doyle, in April 2019.

As the Deputy has rightly said, the appointment of coroners to districts outside of Dublin is a function of the relevant local authorities. The Department and I are not aware of any plans to appoint separate coroners to these counties at this time but obviously, that is a matter for the council to decide and is not something I would prevent or stop it from doing.

It is available to the coroner for Laois and Carlow, Mr. Eugene O'Connor, who has assumed duties, to request that I as Minister for Justice would authorise the deputy coroner, where there is a deputy coroner in Carlow at the moment, to act contemporaneously, that is, in line with or at the same time as the work that he is doing. The option is there for him to request that I would approve such a measure. It is something that I can do and it may, perhaps, be something that the Deputy might want to suggest will happen.

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