Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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1134. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount Kerry County Council paid in coroners fees and expenses during 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and to date in 2025, in tabular form; his views on whether these payments should not be the responsibility of the local authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44902/25]

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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1135. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount each local authority paid in coroners fees and expenses during 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and to date in 2025, in tabular form; his views on whether these payments should not be the responsibility of the local authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44903/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1134 and 1135 together.

My Department can only provide audited figures for overall expenditure on operation of morgues and coroners expenses for the years 2020 to 2023. The figures are from local authority Annual Financial Statements (AFS) and 2023 is the latest year for which audited figures are available. It should be noted that the figures provided show overall expenditure in this area and that coroner fees are not reported separately in the AFS.

An official from my Department was a member of the Coroner Reform Consultation Advisory Committee. The Report on the Public Consultation on the Reform of the Coroner Service can be accessed at this link www.gov.ie/en/department-of-justice-home-affairs-and-migration/publications/report-on-the-public-consultation-on-the-reform-of-the-coroner-service/.

It is noted in the Report, in section 4.3 that a number of respondents believed that the Department of Justice should fund the Coroner Service and related services (e.g. pathology), thereby replacing the role of Local Authorities in this respect; that this point aligns with a widely held view that the Coroner Service requires ‘ownership’ by a single Government Department and; that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage are supportive of the suggestion that the Department of Justice should take over the role in funding the service.

My colleague the Minister of Justice has overall policy and legislative responsibility for the Coroner Service which includes the legislation governing payments by the local authorities for the service, as well as the planned wider reform of the Coroner Service.

Operation of Morgue and Coroner Expenses 2020-2023