I move:—
New Section. After the preceding section to add a new section as follows:—
19.—The power of the Minister for Justice under this Act to make rules with respect to any matter shall include power to prescribe by such rules the forms to be used in connection with that matter and to revoke or amend any forms which are directed or authorised by or under any statute to be used in connection with that matter and to substitute new forms for any of such forms.
Mr. O'Sullivan reminds me that this Committee instructed him to make an application to the Registrar-General arising out of a question as to the authority under which certain forms were issued. The following is the letter sent by Mr. O'Sullivan:—
Dear Sir William Thompson,
There is at present a Select Committee of the Senate sitting on the Coroners Bill, 1925, and at their meeting on the 24th ultimo, a verbatim report of which is enclosed herewith, the question arose as to the forms at present in use by coroners and as to whether any of them were prescribed by statute (see columns 26, 27, 37, 38 and 39 of the report).
I enclose a copy of the form referred to in column 26 and I shall be thankful if you will let me know whether this form and any other forms that are supplied by you for the use of coroners are so prescribed.
Is it the practice to supply the coroners on demand with the forms which they use and if so will you kindly let me have an example of each?
Your views on any question raised in the course of the debate on which you may possess special information will be appreciated.
The reply was as follows:—
Dear Mr. O'Sullivan,
In reply to your letter of the 1st instant, I beg to enclose for your information two copies of each of the forms supplied by this Department for the use of coroners.
The only one of these forms which is prescribed by statute is Form D. This form is for use by coroners in cases of error in the original Certificate of the Finding of the Jury, and is included in the 3rd Schedule to the Act, 43 and 44 Vic., Cap. 13.
The pink form for use when the coroner considers that an inquest is unnecessary, has been issued to coroners since 1898, and was brought into use at the request of the late Dr. Kenny, then coroner for Dublin.
The Forms for Certificate of the Finding of the Jury were first issued to coroners on the 11th January, 1864, to enable them to comply with the obligation imposed on them by Section 38 of the 26 Vic., Cap. 11.
Subsequently, revised forms, together with forms for Order for Burial, were issued in December, 1880, to enable these officers to fulfil the obligations imposed on them by the provisions of the Act, 43 and 44 Vic., Cap. 13, Sections 16 and 17.
With the exception of Form D. aforesaid, these forms were not prescribed by statute, and were only drawn up to enable coroners to conveniently comply with their obligations under the statutes.
Form D is the only one that is statutory, apparently. It is a special certificate, and it was in consequence of a special section in the Registration of Deaths Act, 1880, that this form is prescribed. It is confined to a certificate remedying an error of fact or substance. I never heard of it before. It is extraordinarily wide—" any error of fact or substance other than an error relating to the cause of death."
He cannot alter the verdict.
If you adopt this new section you give the Minister power to prescribe the required forms.
He ought to have it.
Will not that meet Mr. Horgan's point? He said that the coroners had to supply forms themselves, but now we are giving the Minister power to prescribe them.
New section agreed to.
