Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the reply but with regard to a lot of the stuff he said, we know what happens and what is supposed to happen but it has not been happening in Kerry. I am not making it up that three very good friends of mine had to wait six, eight and nine days, with the funeral taking up to 11 days in all. There have also been several more that I was not aware of but was made aware of it by the coroner's office. It was waiting for those people as well.

It is not good enough. People need to have a dignified funeral in an acceptable period of time, and 11 days is too long for a funeral to be concluded. That puts a strain on a family waiting for the corpse to come home. One can only imagine the anguish, torture and torment that people have to go through with this. If the Government cannot find a pathologist - and it says it has been looking for one for over six months now - it must do something better to help the people of Kerry. It should arrange for the undertakers to bring the bodies to a designated place and for them to be seen to in a timely fashion. The people of Kerry are entitled to the same services that the people up here in Dublin have. The Minister of State says there are four forensic pathologists in Dublin. It is not much good to the people of Kerry if they are up here in Dublin, or in Cork or somewhere else, and will not go down to Kerry to perform a post-mortem. That has not been happening, and what has been happening is not good enough.

I appeal to the Minister of State. The two Ministers involved, the Ministers for Justice and Health, will have to do something reasonable about this to facilitate people and families in Kerry who lose their family members.

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