Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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475. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the procedure to arrange for a post-mortem on a body located here to be carried out abroad, for example in Northern Ireland or the UK. [2110/18]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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My Department is responsible for the coroner service. There is no such procedure as described in the Deputy's question set out in the relevant statute which is the Coroner Act 1962.

If a person dies in Ireland, in a manner reportable to the coroner, it is the coroner who determines if a post-mortem examination (and potentially an inquest) is required. Such post-mortem examinations are carried out at the direction of the coroner by a pathologist based in in a hospital in most cases, with a smaller number being conducted by the State Pathologist. This is the standard and statutory process under the Coroner Act.

My Department officials have informed me that they are not aware that any coroner post-mortem examination has ever been conducted outside the State.

If the death is not one reportable to a coroner, neither the coroner or my Department has any role. For a “non-coroner” death, a hospital or the next of kin might, for medical research purposes, request that a post-mortem be carried out by the hospital. This is a voluntary process.

If neither of these two scenarios hold, then the next of kin would be at liberty to transfer or repatriate the body out of the State. Such happens quite regularly where the deceased is to be buried abroad.