Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is 22 years since an independent working group published a very detailed report and findings on the coronial system in Ireland. That working group called for radical reform and major reconfiguration of the coronial system and stated that a clear strategy for change was essential. In April 2021, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL, published research that showed that no significant reform had occurred in either policy or practice.In fact, its research showed that bereaved families were, and still are, consistently failed by the State. One of the clear failings in inquests is the manner in which the jury is selected. Reform of this process was outlined in the ICCL's recommendations. Jurors in inquests are often used repeatedly, are known to the bereaved families and are selected by An Garda Síochána, even in cases where the Garda is party to the inquest itself. The fact that the inquest system has not been reformed at all in the 20 years since the independent working group made its findings is shameful and means that bereaved families continue to be failed by a system that is just not human rights compliant.

On Friday, 25 September 2019, the Attorney General granted the families of those who lost their loved ones in the Stardust fire a new inquest. He rightly found that a new inquest was not only warranted for the families who had been so badly let down by the original inquest, and the damaging inquiry reports that followed that inquest, but he also found that it was in the wider public interest that a new inquest be held. As soon as that decision was taken by the Attorney General, the legal team representing the families, other elected representatives from various parties and I repeatedly sought and got assurances from the Minister for Justice that the inquest would not only be adequately funded by the State but that it would be human rights compliant. What has happened to the families to date has been anything but human rights compliant. Legal aid was denied the families earlier last year. They were asked to submit deeply invasive information about their financial circumstances and some of them were refused legal aid. This is despite the fact that they have waited 40 years for justice. Recommendation 22 in the ICCL's report had already flagged this issue.

In recent days, the matter of jury selection at inquests has once again come to the fore. Under no circumstances should the Garda Síochána be selecting the jury for the Stardust inquest. It is a party to this inquest. The ICCL's recommendations 44 and 45 state very clearly that jury selection should be randomly made from the electoral register and that in high-profile cases lawyers should be able to challenge the make-up of that jury.

The other issue with jurors in inquests is the fact that their income is not protected by law. Is the State seriously going to ask jurors to sit for at least a year on the most significant and largest inquest in the history of the State without any income protection whatsoever? Will the Minister of State give a commitment that the Juries Act will be applied to the coronial inquests? While radical reform is still needed, surely that very small but highly significant reform could be applied in time so that it takes effect for the Stardust inquest.