Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire, an Teachta Harris, as ucht teacht isteach chun an cheist seo a fhreagairt. This is a question about coroners. As the Minister knows, the coronial service falls under his Department. It is an important service that provides answers to families and friends regarding a particular death. It also provides important measures for people to prevent similar deaths occurring. Many people do not know about the Coroner Service because, thank God, they have not had to deal with it. It is hoped that as few people as possible have to deal with it but when unexpected deaths occur, it falls to the coroner to step in. That could be a death in hospital or in custody, be it a mental health institution, prison or Garda station, a death from an accident or a death at home in unexplained circumstances. It is great we have a service that is independent and inquisitorial rather than adversarial, which helps to bring answers to us.

I work a lot with the Coroner Service in my other role. I know Dr. Myra Cullinane and many other coroners throughout the country who do excellent work in the circumstances they have to deal with. They are always dealing with somebody who is grieving in those cases, so it is a difficult job to do. Coroners are also under enormous and increasing pressure, especially in the aftermath of Covid, as we continue, including after long Covid, to have a slight increase in the number of deaths. As regards Dublin in particular, we recently passed legislation in this House that dealt with deputy coroners and provided for a greater spread of coronial capacity in the Dublin area. That is welcome.

There are other areas, however, where the Department needs to make provision. One of those relates to the city morgue and the number of pathologists available to conduct post-mortem examinations. Such examinations can be ordered by the coroner under section 33 of the relevant Act. The point is that in many cases, a post-mortem is required to establish the medical cause of death or the medical circumstances that actually led to the death, quite apart from the circumstances that may have caused the person to be deceased. Where there are not enough pathologists, there is a delay in the post-mortems that occur. Within the city morgue, I am aware of delays in that regard that are impactful both on the coronial service and, perhaps more importantly, the families of deceased people.

In Ireland, we generally deal with death quite well. We have a healthy attitude to it and we celebrate the life of the person who has died. Funerals in Ireland are important gatherings for communities, families and friends to say goodbye to a loved one. Sometimes, however, if there is a delay in the coronial process because of a lack of a pathologist and it takes longer for a post mortem take place, there is a huge delay in getting the remains of that person back to the family and the undertaker. I am aware, for example, that the representative bodies for funeral directors in Ireland are at their wits' end regarding some of the delays they have to face in getting mortal remains back so families can have that celebration. As I said, it is an important opportunity for families to say goodbye, celebrate the life of the person and allow them all to have some kind of closure in respect of it. It is desperately unfair if there is a situation where that process is so delayed that it takes away from it. We are not talking about days but weeks and, in some cases, longer because of delays relating to post-mortem examinations etc.

The reason I raise this issue is to ask the Minister to make greater provision, especially for the city morgue in Dublin and pathology services for post-mortem examinations, to ensure that we do not have delays and that bodies are returned to families and funeral directors in good time. This is necessary to allow undertakers to do the job they do and to allow families to have the celebration they need to have in order to gather closure and move on to deal with the loss they have suffered.