Written answers
Thursday, 8 February 2024
Department of Justice and Equality
Coroners Service
Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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262. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to outline the role and functions of the coroner in a case where a citizen resident in the State has died in suspicious or unexplained circumstances outside the State and his or her body has been repatriated here. [6008/24]
Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Coroner Service comprises of a network of coroners located in districts throughout the country.
Coroners are independent office holders whose function under the Coroners Act 1962, as amended is to investigate sudden and unexplained deaths so that a death certificate can issue.
The Coroners Act 1962 confers on a Coroner a general duty to hold an inquest where a body is ‘lying’ in their district, and where the death may, in the Coroner’s opinion, have occurred in a violent or unnatural manner, or expectantly and from unknown causes, or where there is another specific statutory duty to hold an inquest.
The Act applies to deaths abroad where a body has been repatriated.
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