Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the amendment tabled by Deputies Ward and Daly, which requests that within 12 months of the date of commencement of this Bill, the Government would bring forward legislation to reform the Coroners Acts 1962 to 2024. The important part of the amendment is that any new legislation would have due regard to the recommendations contained in the Joint Committee on Justice report. The committee made 15 recommendations. From what I can see, none of these recommendations made 12 months ago is advanced in the current amendment Bill. I understand that this Bill is necessary. I am not questioning the need for it. I understand all of that but it was rushed through. We had Second Stage last Wednesday and amendments on Thursday morning. We knew this Bill was necessary 12 months ago when the committee recommendations were published but little or nothing of substance from those recommendations found their way into the Bill.

However, one substantial change not contained in those recommendations has found its way into the Bill, which is the move away from the title of officeholder to civil servant for coroners. That is a massive change. According to Eleanor Fitzgerald, president of the Coroners Society of Ireland, that radical change in the Bill compromises the independence and functioning of the office of the coroner. As we all know, a civil servant operates under instructions. They are not independent. The implications of this change were not recommended by the committee and are extremely far-reaching. I have no idea where they came from, especially in the context of the committee's pre-legislative scrutiny, which provided a written briefing to Department officials adding the words, "For pay and superannuation purposes only", immediately following the proposal on civil servant status. In other words, section 2(c)(6B), according to the committee's pre-legislative scrutiny, should read, "A person appointed under subsection (6A) to be a coroner for the coroner's district of Dublin shall be a civil servant in the Civil Service of the State". It proposed to add, "For pay and superannuation purposes only". That would not interfere in any significant way with the independence of the coroner. Where did this come from and how did it happen in a Bill with a very particular focus and which does not deal with any of the recommendations in any substance from the committee? Yet, this has slipped in. I know it is convoluted but I can only speak in the context of the amendment in front of us. In that context, I support this amendment in two ways, if you like, first in what I hope it will include in any future Bill but equally that it would be taken into consideration what it did not recommend and what was not recommended by the committee on pre-legislative scrutiny.

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