Déirdre de Búrca (Green Party)

I welcome the Minister to the House and thank him for his comprehensive overview of the Coroners Bill 2007. The Green Party welcomes this legislation because, as the Minister has pointed out, the legislative changes proposed within it represent a major reform of the law dealing with the investigation of deaths and the overall role of the coroner. The Bill will allow the coroner service, which, as the Minister said, is one of the State's oldest public services, to be transformed from a part-time service administered by individual coroners in conjunction with local authorities to a modern, co-ordinated national service. The purpose of the comprehensive reform of the existing legislation and the replacement of the Coroners Act 1962 is to take into account the contemporary jurisprudence of the Irish courts and the European Court of Human Rights. The Green Party is of the view that this Bill has succeeded in doing this to a quite satisfactory extent.

The Green Party regards certain provisions of the Bill as being significant, such as the ability of an inquest to examine the circumstances of a death and not merely its medical causes. This will provide an improved service to families of deceased persons because it will help both to explain deaths and to draw attention to possible public health and safety issues surrounding deaths.

The Green Party also welcomes the fact that the Bill specifically defines a death from MRSA as a reportable death. This is significant because fear of litigation often prevents hospitals and other institutions from carrying out such reporting.

Other significant provisions in the Bill include stronger powers for coroners to enter premises and seize documents on foot of a court order; the lifting of the current restriction on the number of witnesses coroners may call to an inquest; the introduction of new offences for those who refuse to give evidence and the introduction of High Court orders to oblige them to do so; new powers for the coroner to call expert witnesses; and the granting of free legal aid in certain cases involving a death while in the care or custody of State institutions.

Senator Mullen raised a concern about the proposed independence of the appointments process and the Green Party echoes those concerns. Independence is one of the very necessary criteria for an effective investigation. Senator Ross also queried the failure to separate the investigative and judicial functions of the coroner and the Green Party also has concerns about this issue. The investigation and decisions made regarding a death should have practical independence from those implicated and there should be a lack of institutional connection between the complaints body and those being investigated. This applies in particular to deaths while in Garda custody and the death of a person while in hospital or in another State institution. Perhaps the Minister would comment on this point.

The Green Party also notes the provision to retain the use of juries at inquests, unlike the trend in other common law jurisdictions. Will the Minister explain the reason for this decision to retain the use of juries at inquests? I note the mandatory use of juries in the case of death by road accident has been dispensed with.

Another speaker referred to the issue of suicide. While I would not expect a technical Bill such as this to go into the details of how an inquest would treat deaths by suicide, I wish to make a personal appeal to the Minister. I am involved with the Bray suicide support group and I am very aware of the anguish experienced by families. The inquest is often held well after the death and this reactivates the pain and anguish experienced by the family and friends of the deceased. The conditions and circumstances in which the inquest takes place are far from sympathetic or appropriate, given those circumstances. The ad hoc and somewhat informal nature of the coroners service to date means that families have found themselves in the public gaze and having to listen to the accounts of other families who have been through equally difficult circumstances as a result of a death of a loved one through suspected suicide. Given the growing number of young people dying by suicide, perhaps the Minister would consider providing for sensitivity in the procedures and the circumstances in which such inquests are carried out.

I welcome this Bill which the Green Party sees as essential in modernising the coroner service and ensuring the service operates in a way that reflects the principles of contemporary human rights legislation and good international practice. We acknowledge the resourcing of this service will be vital and we hope to be part of a Government that provides for that effectively. The process of transition from the current to the planned service will be challenging and will require careful and effective planning. The Green Party hopes to support the Minister and his Department in carrying out this process.