Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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76. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he will provide an update on the urgent discussions referenced in his written reply of 22 October 2025 regarding the planned discontinuation of coronial post mortems at University Hospital Waterford from 1 January 2026; the interim arrangements that have now been agreed for counties Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, Tipperary and Carlow; and the way in which his Department intends to ensure that bereaved families in the south east are not subjected to further delays or distress as a result of these changes. [68836/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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Following a recent meeting in University Hospital Waterford, UHW, attended by representatives and officials in my Department, I am advised that the pathologists employed at that location have indicated they are not available to carry out post mortems. On foot of this, my Department has been engaging with locum pathologists with a view to agreeing a solution to the situation in UHW from 1 January next. This approach is an unfortunate necessity to minimise any impact on bereaved family members who are engaging with the Coroner Service. A long-term sustainable solution is, nevertheless, required whereby locum pathologists are not relied upon to provide for the autopsy service and instead this service to the community is provided from within the pathology profession in Ireland generally.

I am afraid that I am also advised there are issues arising with respect to the performance of post mortems within the pathology profession generally. These include issues relating to training and recruitment as well as competing demands on pathologists in areas of diagnostic and research work. These are concerns that I am particularly worried about. There is an overlap here between my Department, which has responsibility for the Coroner Service and inquests, and the Minister for Health, Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

In April 2022, my Department established a standing committee on the provision of coroner-directed post mortem examination services, membership of which consists of representatives from the Department of Health, HSE, Office of the State Pathologist, Garda, Coroners Society, and other officials from the faculty of pathology in the Royal College of Physicians. While this committee is an important forum with appropriate membership to discuss issues in relation to the autopsy service, I am conscious that the situation in University Hospital Waterford has reached a critical juncture and an urgent solution is required. I will consider and continue to seek to engage on this issue but it is an issue over which I do not have full control in light of what pathologists are doing at present.

Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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We are little more than 40 days from a cliff edge that the Minister has just described as a "critical juncture". From 1 January post mortems will no longer be carried out at UHW, a service that carries out 700 cases every year, which are often the most tragic and traumatic of deaths. Behind every one of these cases is a family in shock waiting for answers and waiting simply to lay a loved one to rest yet today, with the deadline fast approaching, there is no clarity on who will perform these examinations, where they will take place,or how families in counties Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, Carlow and Tipperary will be protected from delays that could last days or weeks. How will the Minister ensure that bereaved families in the south east are not plunged into a crisis of delays, distress and indignity from 1 January? Families deserve certainty, they deserve compassion and a plan, and they deserve it now.

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I agree with the Deputy that it is a very traumatic experience for a family after there has been a death if they are told that there has to be a post mortem and then there can be a considerable wait prior to the funeral. I would not like to see Ireland develop in the same way as other countries where there is a significant delay between death and the funeral. One of the things we do very well in this country is death and it is not something that we want to change by having a big gap between death and a funeral.

Where a coroner deems a post mortem examination to be required, the coroner concerned will arrange the post mortem examination to be conducted as expeditiously as possible to ensure timely release of the remains to the next of kin. Depending on the circumstance of the death, a post mortem examination is carried out by a pathologist or, in State forensic cases, by the Office of the State Pathologist. I am in the process of seeking to review the law in respect of coroners. We need to examine the circumstances of when we order a post mortem. A post mortem is not needed in all the situations that we have them at present, particularly for elderly people, but that level of reform will not be in place by 1 January. I am concerned about what the Deputy has narrated as to the circumstances in University Hospital Waterford.

Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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This is not an abstract policy issue; this is a human one. There are 700 cases every year. Every day that a family waits for a post mortem is a day they cannot hold a funeral, cannot begin the grieving process and cannot find closure. That is the reality that awaits hundreds of families across the south east if this service collapses on 1 January. Coroners, funeral directors and front-line responders still have no guidance. Families deserve reassurance that they will not be left waiting in deep distress for a service that is their right. I again ask the Minister, respectfully but firmly, to commit to guaranteeing that no family across the south east will face avoidable delays or uncertainty on the most difficult days of their lives. The people we represent in the south east deserve nothing less.

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. I will give the statistics in respect of University Hospital Waterford. There are nine sanctioned consultant pathology posts of which eight are currently filled with one vacancy to be filled next year. Two posts were filled earlier this year and these appointments have not been made on the basis of the autopsy element being excluded. The remaining six pathologists have provided the autopsy service with three taking on the bulk of the workload. All six have confirmed that they will withdraw the service from 1 January. This is happening because consultants are withdrawing from a service. We need to look again at the contracts of individuals we are hiring as pathologists, so that there is a requirement that they perform post mortems and autopsies.

As the Deputy said, approximately 700 autopsies are conducted in University Hospital Waterford every year. The local pathologist services with which the Department is engaging will be contracted to provide a service from pathologists not already providing services in Ireland. In practice, this will be from the UK.